
Class. 
Book. 



*T 



P./ 



Copyright N?.. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



HUMAN OCCUPATION 



HUMAN 
OCCUPATION 



BY 

S. A. WHEELWRIGHT 



BELLEVILLE, WIS. 

The Monona Publishing Company 

publishers 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two pooies Received 
MAR n 1907 

j* Copyright Entry 

per jui» t ^ •, iff fc 



COPY B. 



2>Va-sq\ 



Copyright 1906 

BY 

S. A. WHEELWRIGHT 



COPYRIGHT IN GREAT BRITAIN 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



INTRODUCTORY 

Many generations of men have lived and 
died upon the earth but ours is preeminently 
the age of industry. In former centuries, 
while some have wrought with great devo- 
tion and have embellished the earth with 
the products of their hands, other people, 
and by far the larger number, have lived 
in indolence and passivity. The earth, with 
its prodigality of wealth, has gone untended 
since the origin of man. Exceptions have 
arisen and manifested their splendor in 
Northern Africa, Southwestern Asia and 
Southeastern Europe — the hub of ancient 
times — but the conspicuity of these excep- 
tions only proves the rule that until modern 
times the earth has gone unsubdued. While 
Egypt flourished, and when she fell, the re- 
mainder of that vast continent lay dormant. 
Her millions of men were in the savage 
state, and if their hands were idle, so were 
their minds. 

There was a time when the people of 
Southern Europe were employed to the 
v 



vi Introductory 

amazement of all mankind. They reared 
cities, organized armies, floated navies and 
performed wonders in art, but then the bulk 
of the world was not called into action. 
Hundreds of millions of people lived in the 
earth and lived idly. Their spirits were not 
raised, nor had they ideals, or plans beyond 
the moment. 

But ours is an age in which men are em- 
ployed. The summit of civilization is not 
only higher than in former ages; it has a 
broader base. Civilization today is almost 
world wide. There is not a continent in 
the northern hemisphere but boasts a great 
civilization; while those under the southern 
skies, South America, Africa and Australia, 
if the latter may be called a continent, have 
in many parts taken on the life of the age. 
They are coming rapidly into action. They 
are taking up the implements handed them 
by their contemporaries of the north. On 
their coasts the city is reared, in their for- 
ests the axe resounds; their deep hidden 
treasures are being mined by shafts of steel, 
and half a hundred flags float above that 
many governments which the powers rec- 
Otgnize as civilized. 



Introductory vii 

Speaking of the human family the world 
over we may say this is an age in which our 
hands are full of tools. Everything is har- 
nessed up and the world is under motion. 
In our large cities of the north especially it 
would appear to the onlooker that ours is a 
race of madmen, so earnestly, so indus- 
triously do they spring into the treadmill 
of toil. All men and all things are hasten- 
ing on to their destinations. Streams of 
humanity like mixing avalanches flow 
through all streets and cross streets. It is 
not that they speak or that they cavil, but 
because of their work that the city has its 
roar. Their buildings obscure the heavens, 
and by the smoke of their forges and fur- 
naces the very sun is eclipsed. There is no 
rest. The tread power is never locked. 
All strain and press on toward the object 
unseen — an army of the people of the world 
marching ever on. Man is awed at his own 
operations and the angels seem to lean over 
the battlements of Heaven in amazement. 
The question goes around, "To what end 
are the operations of man? Are they vol- 
untary, well defined, in harmony with God 
and His universe, and intended to endure, 



viii Introductory 

or do they perish and the creature with 
them?" 

Two facts are at once evident. Some peo- 
ple are doing what they ought not do, and 
some people are doing what they prefer not 
to do. In some cases they know not what 
they want to do ; in others they dare not do 
their known duty, while with others the 
thing they long to do is possibly beyond 
their ability to perform. Bewildered or en- 
tangled, they are as though lost in the deep 
fastnesses of a jungle. The right hand of 
God is extended from Heaven for their 
help. They see it not. The good Shepherd 
bids them follow Him. They hear not His 
voice. And the woe of the world is re- 
peated in that man follows not his Maker. 

It is the mission of this little book to come 
to those who are out of their place, that feel 
discontented, and that they are not filling 
their measure of life, and lend a hand. 

Have you been born and not commis- 
sioned? Are you in the world and not at 
work? If so let precious wisdom enter your 
tembrace. There is a work for you, a work 
grand and indispensable. God never made 
a man that He had no use for, nor is there 



Introductory ix 

a human being in this world that the world 
does not need. Some have not found their 
place; have not sufficiently searched for 
it, it may be; or if they have looked around 
they have looked too low or too far away. 
Your place is in the world, even if you have 
not found it. There is a place where you 
will be supremely happy, perfectly satisfied, 
all taken up with your work ; which you can 
fill better than any other person. There 
God calls you and there you will succeed. 



CONTENTS 



PART I 

PAGE 

Working for a Living i 13 

Working for Wealth 32 

Working for Pleasure 60 

Working to Avoid Work 93 

Working to No Effect , 1 21 

PART II 

Working for Self Support 1S1 

Devotion to Family 177 

Working for the Public. 206 

Working for the Individual 226 

Working for God 254 

Responsibility 274 

In Consequence 279 

In Conclusion 286 



PART I 



WORKING FOR A LIVING 

Of all God's creatures on land or in the 
sea, there is none better organized to se- 
cure for himself a living than is man. By 
modern inventions his senses are multiplied 
in capacity far beyond those of the brute. 
Once outdistanced by the horse, the deer, 
the bird, he now outdistances everything 
mortal in the race. His inventions bring 
down the eagle from her giddy flight and 
reduce in an instant the most powerful and 
ferocious beast in his lair. He has the hands 
not only to gather but to store his food. If 
scarcity obtains in his own locality, by word 
or wire he commands his food from some 
distant quarter of the globe. Moreover he 
has communication with the mind that cre- 
ates things, that stores with abundance the 
wild growths of nature and causes every 
summer to wave with spontaneous harvests. 

Judging from our surroundings and the 
express word of Jesus, God never intended 
13 



14 Human Occupation 

that we should occupy any great portion of 
our time and thought in securing food, shel- 
ter or raiment. Food is everywhere within 
our easy reach. By nature the woods 
abound in it. By cultivation the fields are 
burdened with it. Orchards grow and 
bloom and bring forth a thousand fold. 
The rivers that flow at our feet, the seas that 
wash our shores abound with life fit for 
man. The beasts of a thousand hills and 
the fowls that flock through the heavens 
serve submissively their created end. In fact 
all things were made for man — for him to 
eat or to use or to reject or to experiment 
upon. 

Yet freedom from concern for food does 
not always secure in man the highest ex- 
pression of God's original hope. The abun- 
dance of food in the tropics begets laziness 
in man. He who was made upright, in 
the image of God, there basks in diurnal 
warmth, lacking necessity and void of de- 
sire. The achievements of his ancestors are 
no concern to him, nor does he dream of fu- 
ture greatness for his offspring. Because 
his wants are by nature supplied and his 
store house never demolished, he counts 



Working for a Living 15 

himself happy and lies down without con- 
cern. Long called upon to forward his 
rightful commodities to the markets of the 
world, he has only shifted his responsibility 
and invited the world to come after them. 
He has not imitated the temples of learning 
or of grace of other lands, nor has he given 
himself a name or a record or a prestige in 
the world. Swathed in luxuriant nature, 
reclining where it fell, all he had to do was 
to pick up the abundant fruit. And since he 
could do this whenever hunger called, his 
fallen nature sank still further in the scale 
of created beings. Endowed with a single 
talent, he smothers that in the roll of indo- 
lence, and, without an exertion, suffers time, 
opportunity, life, the sight of the world and 
the hope of heaven to pass. His station is 
low because of his inheritance and he leaves 
it low since he lacks inkindled divinity. 
He is man but he is fallen. 

It cannot be argued that for him there is 
no hope, for the present age is revealing 
that hope. Chaste Christianity, in her mis- 
sion to the soul sleepers of the tropics, is 
finding their divinity, it is fanning the spark, 
inkindling the flame and causing to glow 



16 Human Occupation 

with light that which for ages has smould- 
ered in recognized heathenism. The ever 
towering civilization of the north casts its 
rays of light to that far off gloom. The 
wheels of commerce have invaded their sol- 
itudes. And thus we account for rising civ- 
ilizations on almost every coast beneath the 
vertical sun. 

Nor can it be shown that extreme neces- 
sity and dependence have always developed 
in man a rising response. The overcrowded 
peoples of the Orient have suffered all the 
reversals of fortune that man is subject to. 
Drouth, famine, pestilence and the sword 
have repeatedly swept over them. They 
have been subjected to the utmost extremi- 
ties and tried with all the trials common to 
man. Yet these lashings and scourgings 
have passed over without evident spiritual 
results. In their distress these people have 
appealed to ears of brass and arms of wood 
or hearts of their own manufacture. There 
was a human heart and human intelligence 
and under pressure of nature their appeals 
were raised, but they were raised to that 
which could not respond. The result has 
been more ignorance, more confusion, 



Working for a Living 17 

deeper degradation and dense 1 " darkness. 
All the forces acting upon these celestials 
until the last century and a half have only- 
deepened their degradation and sunk them 
lower in the mire of helplessness. Origin- 
ally noble, descended from the good and 
the great, their want of truth has been their 
slow but certain ruin. Under the same con- 
ditions, with a window open from Heaven 
and the Word of Revelation handed down, 
they would never have lost their better es- 
tate. Or, having lost it, the inflow of light 
would have secured their speedy reformation 
and recovery. 

This, in fact, is what has at last taken 
place. To them the true light came during 
the vicissitudes of the nineteenth century. 
Once introduced, it took effect with remark- 
able celerity. India is awaking to right- 
eousness, Japan was born in a day and mo- 
mentous China is being stirred at last in all 
her broad boundaries. 

In the tropics we have people who bestow 
no thought upon clothes or food or houses. 
Nothing apparently has prevented them 
from devoting their uninterrupted time to 
the nurture of their children and the eleva- 



18 Human Occupation 

tion of their own minds and hearts, but not 
having enjoyed the direct operations of the 
Spirit of God they have failed in all things 
in all ages. They cannot point back to so 
much as an attempt to rise. In the Orient 
we have a people who have been under 
periodical stress during all their history. 
Nothing could be more natural than to sup- 
pose that under the steel of war or the rav- 
ages of pestilence or famine they would cry 
out for help and seek deliverance which 
would lead to their elevation as time elapsed. 
This they have indeed done but owing to 
their misdirection nothing has availed until 
the dawn of recent times. In the presence 
of such facts, the most modest conclusion 
at which we can arrive is that if we work 
for a living or if we do not work for a liv- 
ing, or if we have but little material neces- 
sity it matters little. Neither will of itself, 
in the absence of the cooperation of the 
divine intelligence, impel us onward and up- 
ward. 

Whether more can be said of the man 
who lives in the broad light of Christen- 
dom, but spends all his energies in seizing 
a living, remains to be considered. Blessed 



Working for a Living 19 

with environment, he looks down on his 
heathen neighbors and calls them lazy. He 
despises their attainments and pronounces 
against their improvidence. Be thrusts in 
the sickle to secure an abundance. Little 
does he reflect why or for whom, but all 
things are secondary to his supreme desire, 
a living. God has not been consulted nor 
man considered. But with coat thrown and 
sleeves rolled he bends to the business of 
grasping a living. 

He does not consider the ant whose provi- 
dence is inspired; or the lily which feeds 
from the soil as it reclines in the air. His 
ear is dumb to the voice which says, "All 
your needs shall be supplied" and "Take no 
anxious thought what ye shall eat or what 
ye shall drink or what ye shall put on, for 
your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have 
need of all these things." God intends man 
shall have plenty of all that is for his good 
and has created all things for him, but he 
knows it not or does not consider. Every 
rising morning and every declining sun 
looks down upon him with his one concern. 
The earth chafes beneath his hasty feet and 
Heaven sighs and finds it useless to deal 



20 Human Occupation 

with him. The pit is set before him to re- 
ceive his fall and arrest his attention; 
storms are sent upon him to cause him to 
consider; floods carry away what he has 
stored up, but to no effect; he is looking 
within and not learning from above. Sick- 
ness lays him low, war carries off a neg- 
lected son, dissolution obtains among his 
possessions, the hand is "writing on the 
wall,' , but without results. The man that 
concerns himself with feeding himself may 
have Heaven's Kingdom above him and all 
about him and even then die without its 
riches or its teachings. All there is for him 
is a living. Verily, he has his reward, the 
answer to his life, the desire of his every 
moment. He was abundantly filled and 
perished with his desire. 

The man who lives for a living ignores 
the reality of his own soul. He is devoted 
to the body with all his time and faculties, 
but forgets his real self — the soul. The 
soul has its being within the body and is 
the self proper. It has little need of things 
here below, except that with which it may 
repair its house — the body. This material 
for repairs is deposited according to all its 



Working for a Living 21 

proper appointments by the circulatory sys- 
tem through a thousand gushing arteries. 
It is milled for the blood as it advances 
through the alimentary canal. The capacity 
of the stomach is fully up with the needs of 
the soul. In fact the state of the soul is the 
gauge for the food both in quality and quan- 
tity. Whatever unduly elevates or de- 
presses the soul may wisely be rejected. 
Plain and scant food for the body has 
proven best for the soul and the great souls 
of earth have universally agreed upon this. 
The manner of feeding the body has ren- 
dered useless and unhappy countless num- 
bers of souls. It has robbed them of great- 
ness here and of glory hereafter. But the 
man whose chief joy and essential business 
is to procure and enjoy what ministers to 
the body, knows not the existence of the 
soul, much less the conditions under which 
it obtains its greatness. 

The soul itself in no sense feeds upon the 
delicacies of the table, although its state is 
affected by all we eat, by what we wear and 
by all the circumstances of our environment. 
But, given a clean, roomy well warmed body 
in which to live, the soul feeds with rejoic- 



%% Human Occupation 

ing upon the word of God. "Man shall not 
live by bread alone but by every word which 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God." This 
word is its meat and its drink. And even 
on this the soul flourishes best when not 
gorged, or hurried, or over-fed, but when it 
partakes with reverence, thanksgiving and 
awe, as ministered unto by the Holy Ghost. 
From the serene depths of the Word rises 
to the soul's vision the most comprehensive 
view of ancient history known to man. Man 
is seen in his origin, his fall, his probation 
and his recovery through Christ. History 
here gets her philosophy, and God gra- 
ciously deals with the rising race. 

The man who pursues life for a living 
only, not only ignores the reality and inter- 
ests of his own immortal being but to the 
grief of Heaven and earth, he ignores the 
souls of his neighbors, his nearest friends 
and even of his own children. In compari- 
son with food and drink and what is pleas- 
ing to his taste, his children's entreaties are 
quite forgotten. They may hunger, they 
may shiver, they may go unloved, their 
bodies may famish and their souls perish; 
but (God pity the parent) he must pursue 



Working for a Living 23 

his unalterable purpose, that of procuring a 
living. Their living is lightly considered, 
and if provided for at all, it is only the 
body, while the more important part, the 
soul, the creation that lives forever, meets 
neglect and utter starvation. 

Certainly such a mortal does not raise his 
eyes and look into the open portals of eter- 
nity. His face is fixed like a flint upon the 
defiant earth from which he exacts all his 
living. Should angels beckon him above he 
would not know it. The mansions there 
appearing, the royal reunion, the crown for 
the redeemed are all invisible to him. He 
has not measured time with eternity, and 
to compare the realities of this world with 
the realities of the world to come, he is ut- 
terly incompetent. His faith reaches only 
to the ground where his evasive treasure is. 
His desire is all toward himself at the ex- 
pense of the universe and its Creator. Min- 
istering to no one, no one ministers to him. 
The very extravagance with which he has 
cut off all things that he may serve himself, 
in reality cuts him off from all things and 
to him all things are forever lost. He has 
served self and lost all. 



24 Human Occupation 

It is not evident that the man with every 
opportunity, who pursues only a living, is 
more blessed or honored in the end than 
the dweller in the confines of heathenism. 
His talents are greater but his attainments 
are not. And the woeful manner with 
which he disregards known duty and slams 
to the doors of opportunity, drives God and 
men with reluctance to the conclusion that 
he is less worthy of rewards than are they. 
They will be beaten with fewer stripes, 
lashed with an easier conscience, endure less 
from self-condemnation and live easier un- 
der the censure of all intelligent beings. 

God has wisely made it necessary for us 
to work in this world. The facts that we 
must eat or starve and must work if we eat 
and have trials and troubles and losses as 
well as successes if we work are all good, 
and out of the far-seeing wisdom of a kind 
Providence. The good and great man is al- 
ways a working man. Trials and necessities 
have evidently always been good for the 
race; but work and hardship and necessity 
have never been successful agents of them- 
selves in rendering men good and great. 
They secure what ease and idleness will not, 
but they never succeed alone. 



Working for a Living 25 

Man succeeds best and rises more surely 
when God is his teacher and the world is his 
school ground. God must condescend in 
looking down to man, and man must per- 
severe in looking up to God. Agreement in 
good faith must be made and man's devel- 
opment in the world is certain. The storms, 
the trials, the temptations of this world are 
his lessons which he receives with joy. His 
extremities are God's opportunities and his 
disasters are God's reprovals. 

The ever-living and unchangeable God 
has chosen one nation through whom He has 
illustrated this. His dealings with them 
constitute their history ; it has been recorded 
for man and its essential parts are in the 
book known in Christendom as the Bible. 
Its contents are the most noteworthy pas- 
sages on record. They are designed to re- 
veal God's nature and his dealings with the 
human family, what he has already wrought 
and what he proposes for the future. Out 
of His love for all nations of men, He has se- 
lected one nation which He calls His chosen ; 
but they were chosen more as an illustration 
than as favorites. Yet the choice was emi- 
nently fitting, inasmuch as of all the nations 



26 Human Occupation 

of mankind, they, the Hebrews, inclined 
most toward God and good. The historic 
platform on which they played their part 
was not only at the hub of history but at 
the hub of the ancient world. The eminence 
to which they were led was in full view of 
all mankind. Nothing was done in a cor- 
ner. They acted real life ; and God pledges 
Himself that what He was then He is today 
and ever will be. No experiment was en- 
acted, but the curtain was drawn to reveal 
an illustration. 

The father of this commanding race, 
Abraham, rises to man's recognition because 
he possessed merit before God, and rose to 
God's recognition. One conspicuous qual- 
ity in the man was that he was faithful. He 
had confidence in God and God with good 
reason had confidence in him. This confi- 
dence, or faith, led to heroic obedience on 
the part of Abraham and a conditional 
promise on the part of God. Out of natural 
impossibility and from a man as good as 
dead arose a great nation. They were made 
under the immediate hand of God, the stress 
of slavery, of war, of travel, of famine and 
contending religions. Through many cen- 



Working for a Living 87 

tunes of toil and trouble they attained their 
golden age under Saul, David and Solomon 
and delivered their supreme service to the 
world, just before their complete fall, in the 
person of Christ. 

Some of the details of what God can do 
with people who have to work and suffer 
may be seen in the history of this people. 
They lived in a country whose favors were 
periodical — sometimes plenty, with prosper- 
ity; sometimes scarcity with famine. Nature 
failed them but God never did. His will- 
ingness and ability were both shown when 
all other resources were cut off. He gave 
the nation growth under slavery, he gave 
them habitation by all the vicissitudes of 
w T ar, but their character, their conquering 
faith, their national organization and their 
divine statutes he gave them while they 
wandered in Arabia at the mercy of sand 
and sun, wind and war, where their food 
came direct from Heaven and their only 
hope lay in obedience. 

Had the physical constitution been such 
that they had no need of food or water, they 
would have felt less need of God. But hu- 
man need was never greater. For not only 



28 Human Occupation 

were they in the presence of hostile hordes 
on every side, their wives and little ones 
were with them and they all were without 
resources of any kind, save from above. 
Obedience became necessary and faith in- 
dispensable. What they had they must call 
for and what they called for in faith they 
received. The presence of God was con- 
stantly needed, constantly sought and con- 
stantly enjoyed. 

The results are as evident as the causes. 
The first call of Moses to them to prepare all 
ages for the march met with suspicion and 
ridicule. Pharaoh, and his court as well, 
were incredulous. Egypt's sovereign and 
slave alike mocked the living God. No one 
believed or had immediate grounds for be- 
lief. But when God rained ten plagues upon 
the land, when he shook the earth with his 
wrath, when he rendered life unbearable 
for the royalty and the position untenable 
for the slave, the march was taken up, 
though with mutterings and murmurings 
and regrets. 

The nation had been disqualified for war 
by four centuries of slavery, but under God 
and the stress of the times they became 



Working for a Living 29 

world conquerors. Their grasp of govern- 
ment, human or divine, must have been un- 
worthy of regard, but God so situated them 
that in less than a score of years they were, 
and ever since have been regarded as models 
of mercy and judgment, and the first writers 
of revelation. In Egypt they had lost their 
faith but before they finished the conquest 
of their promised heritage they were living 
by faith to a greater extent than any single 
nation of any age on any part of the globe 
ever have done. Faith in God is unques- 
tionably one of the most essential factors of 
man's greatness. 

A summary of God's achievements in 
their behalf, and through them, in behalf of 
the human family, would serve to show the 
possibilities of a people who are, during the 
lapse of ages, for a few years only, brought 
immediately under the tutelage of God. So 
evident, so desirable, so facile are his tran- 
scendent methods, that man, can he but get 
his own consent, may enter into a new, a 
higher, and entirely different life before the 
gong sounds the third hour. This literal 
change is figuratively termed "the new 
birth." It is the passing from self to God, 



30 Human Occupation 

from a life our own to a life subject to Him. 
It is becoming his child, his disciple, his 
friend and co-worker. It is the mightiest 
transaction in man's spiritual history subse- 
quent to itself, and it is the beginning of a 
series of forward and upward steps under 
God's direction, the end and glory of which 
man has not conceived. 

This is the path of man's proper pro- 
cedure. To gain a living is not the end of 
his being; it is simply a means to the end. 
Cut off the living of the body and the soul 
must take up its career in another world. 
A living, necessary as it is, is worthy of pur- 
suit only as a means of providing a fit habi- 
tation for the soul. Man needs only enough 
to do good with — good to himself, his fam- 
ily, his fellow men and his God. Work thus 
should be man's only work ; but since man's 
choices thwart the will of God, God lays 
upon man incessant and unproductive toil 
simply as a corrective. And again man's 
acquired desire to amass fortune impels him 
to work, so that wherever Christendom has 
planted her banner and wherever working 
people dwell, there exists confusion as to 
what is the proper object of man's labor. 



Working for a Living 31 

The desires of man, the face of nature and 
the prevalence of the weather can never set- 
tle this. There is one mind that knows, one 
heart that has conceived, one Word that has 
uttered it : the mind, the heart, the Word of 
God: "Son, go work today in my vine- 
yard/' 



II 

WORKING FOR WEALTH 

There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, 
riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those 
riches perish. All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he 
hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness. — Bed. 5 : 13, 1±, 17. 

God's warning to man has always been 
that he should not fix his affections upon 
the wealth of this world. Not because the 
wealth of the world is not good for man, or 
that it is withheld from him, but because 
it is not worthy of his affections, or a fit 
object for his desires. This world is not 
man's abiding place, it is only his school 
ground — the place of his education. Our 
real home, the place of our permanent 
abode, is far removed hence; it is eternal 
and in the heavens. There man's mansions 
are ready built, his possessions are spread 
out in glory, prepared expressly, and await- 
ing the fitness of his coming. 

For man to concern himself with storing 
up goods in this world is to withdraw his 
gaze and his affections from Heaven and 
his eternal interests, for "where his treas- 
ure is, there will his heart be also." It is 
to strive after that which he cannot with 
32 



Working for Wealth 83 

case and propriety obtain; it is to lay up 
what all money seekers will desire to take 
from him; it is to amass what time itself 
will tear down; it is providing for the rav- 
ages of moth and rust; it is to attach one's 
self to that which the sword of death will 
certainly some time cut off. It was an act 
of high mercy that God advised us not to 
exert ourselves for the wealth of this world, 
for in its gain we meet toil, in its possession 
we meet worry, in its distribution we meet 
responsibility and in its inevitable loss we 
meet disappointment. We need an abun- 
dance and God desired us to have an abun- 
dance; therefore he created an abundance. 
He has cast it upon the earth like snow, He 
has locked it away beneath the ribs of the 
rocks, so that all who ever shall live upon 
the earth will find their living, struck off to 
them with the rest of creation, ready and 
accessible for their use. 

God has evident delight in a plentiful pro- 
vision for his people, but man distrusts, or 
is ignorant of the wishes of his own Cre- 
ator. As in the days of the downfall of 
manna, so in fact in all the days of man's 
earthly pilgrimage, God provides in due or- 



34 Human Occupation 

der for all man's needs, and the most that 
he wishes is that man may have enough, but 
not be burdened with an over supply, since 
the supply is to come daily fresh from the 
bounties of Heaven. But, as under the 
daily fall of manna, man could not trust his 
God and began to amass the fresh fallen 
bread, so man today, knowing the precision 
of the seasons and the veracity of his God, 
frets himself for tomorrow and falls to crib- 
bing supplies in excess. 

Yes, even more; the world has moved 
forward, and we now live under the illumin- 
ated canopy of the twentieth century. Man 
in all ages has found it hard to keep his 
hands off the wealth of the world and his 
affections fixed upon that empire above. He 
has transgressed his appointments, has for 
many generations gone over for more than 
was meet, and today with the precedent of 
the past, and an insatiate desire for gain, 
man, from his youth, labors for the bread 
that perishes. For this he is trained and 
equipped, and for this he believes himself 
to be born and commissioned. Making 
wealth — amassing a fortune, is his self-ap- 
pointed business for life. And could angels 



Working for Wealth 35 

look down upon a twentieth century pit of 
commerce, they would vow that man had 
cast down both consideration and reason — 
yes, and the humanity with which he was 
crowned; and, with a greed quite beyond 
that of the swine, blind with desire, with a 
shriek and a shove, he is pitching into the 
whirl to scoop full his mow with the husks 
of the pit. Not but there is plenty and to 
spare, but the desire has seized him to 
spread bestial claws over all he surveys and 
cover it to himself, against the piping desires 
of faint orphans and widows. The croco- 
dile that retains his appointment among the 
slimes of the slough, could he look and pass 
upon this common act of greed, would shud- 
der throughout at its baseness. 

Unless man can blot out history he cannot 
deny this characteristic of his fallen nature. 
It was this that prompted its possessors to 
rear to themselves the fallen gardens and 
palaces of Babylon. It was this that 
prompted the Pharaohs to plant deep the 
pyramids of Egypt, and that impelled Rome 
to chain down the world. Whenever and 
wherever God's freemen have been bound 
down te" slavery it was by the p^wer of 



36 Human Occupation 

greed. By it the feebler nations of the world 
have been displaced. By it the stronger 
ones still fill the earth, and wherever war is 
waged or peace prevails, man rules or is 
ruled, to an appalling extent, by the power 
of greed. 

Such is the history of man. He is advised 
not to lay hold upon the world and its treas- 
ure, but he rejects the advice. He is warned 
not to grasp for himself what is intended 
for all, but he has in all ages ignored the 
warning and the interests of men. He has 
heaped to himself riches; he has compelled 
others to serve him; he has invented means 
of storing wealth by thousands and by mil- 
lions more than he could ever use or spend ; 
he has exacted usury; he has not given to 
the poor, or fed the hungry, or clothed the 
naked, or housed the homeless ; he has said, 
"I will build more vaults and incarcerate 
more gold; I will conceal it from thieves, 
from the needy and from the assessor; I 
will secure it for myself against all sources 
of attack; I will wall it in where moth and 
worms and rust cannot enter it and I will 
secure it against the eye and the hand of the 
Lord Almighty Himself." 



Working for Wealth 3T 

God has in all ages discouraged the ra- 
pacity of men. He has first of all created 
an abundance so no man has any lack at all. 
He has distributed it over the face of the 
whole earth and creates it for every genera- 
tion of men. He has filled full the seas, the 
forests, the mountains and the soil. The air 
we breathe and the light and shadow in 
which we live are abundant, are for all and 
are free. No one is supposed to corner these 
necessities, or bottle them up for himself or 
wall them in from the masses of mankind. 
God has given them without extortion and 
those who handle them are supposed to han- 
dle them thus. The wool for clothes, the 
coal for fire, the wood for lumber and the 
gold and silver for mediums of exchange are 
no more to be withheld from man for a 
premium than the air we breathe, the light 
we absorb, or the room we occupy. The 
wealth of the world, like the water of the 
world, should flow forth from God to all 
mankind, without human interference or 
diversion. Men may handle it, but in so 
doing should only augment its volume and 
help it to flow forever on. 

If man interferes with the free and full 



38 Human Occupation 

circulation of God's gifts, he is a grasper, 
and at once meets the condemnation of 
earth and of Heaven. He has been warned 
not to lay on hands except to improve and 
enlarge the circulation, and if he does so, 
he does it at his own peril. He may labor 
to subdue the earth but not to possess it. He 
may create wealth, but he must not withhold 
it from men. He may render the forests 
into lumber, or the clay into brick but he 
must not attach extortion. To build cities 
for earthly habitation, boats, roads and cars 
for transportation and mills for manufac- 
ture is good and commendable, for they help 
speed on the blessings of humanity and give 
God glory. But if their builder says, "Be- 
hold, they are mine, and for me," and with- 
holds them and their advantages from God 
and men, he begins a fight against God and 
the entire human family. And his soul, if 
not called at once to give an account of itself 
before the throne of the universe, will be 
later, with a full rendering of all its works. 
It is not with ease nor certainty that the 
human eye perceives whether or not a man 
is antagonizing the universal interests, for 
he whose whole heart and soul are for God 



Working for Wealth 39 

and humanity must buy and sell, pay taxes 
and insurance, hold deeds and pay rolls and 
bear the brunt of business with all the 
earnestness of the man who holds property, 
not as a trust, but as his own. If there are 
any surface distinctions at all, they are that 
the man who is for God and the people pays 
without deceit his due proportion of taxes, 
pays his helpers with a willing heart, gives 
with great willingness to the objects of 
grace, education and charity, and in fact is 
in business for the evident purpose of help- 
ing on the interests of God in the world, 
whatever they are. If he wishes to produce 
wealth, it is that it may be used for the good 
of others. He directs the course of capital 
that men may have labor and their families 
have food, clothes, the blessings of educa- 
tion and the joys of everlasting life. He is 
a perpetual giver, and yet all he gives is his 
talent, since God sends to him the silver and 
gold, the health and the strength that he has 
that He may behold with joy all its benefi- 
cent results. 

The self centered man has but one mo- 
tive, that of getting possession of things for 
himself. He may not be a miser, hoarding 



40 Human Occupation 

his gold in hovels and dens. He may rear 
with great pretensions the palace he calls his 
own. His vaults and money drawers may 
be enclosed in palatial blocks; he may em- 
ploy his thousands and feed their families, 
but all things perform for him. His mills, 
his banks, his men and even their homes are 
all subservient to the throne on which he has 
seated himself. He finds delight in the fact 
that he is at last at the head of an empire, 
the petty kingdom of his own business. He 
inflates and flatters himself and turns again 
to survey the sum of his possessions. But 
it is uttered from above, "Thou fool, this 
night shall thy soul be required of thee and 
then whose shall these things be?" 

The self centered capitalist by his resist- 
ance to the most common principles of good, 
his opposition to the state, to his fellow men 
and to God, becomes a very conspicuous but 
evil example to the young; his course is op- 
pressive to the world of labor; he creates 
commercial, political and social war, and is 
a broad barrier to the bread of the poor. 
He reviews the world and resolves upon 
gain. From the hills he reaps forests, from 
the mountains he corners the coal, into his 



Working for Wealth 41 

warehouses he forces the products of the 
farm, and in his chests he locks up his gold. 
Premium and profit are his banners of busi- 
ness. What goes out is dealt by the hand of 
extortion, and what man is unable to buy, 
at the time, is held back by him against the 
day when it must be bought. Such an one, 
seeking as he does to hinder man's every 
source of supplies, should himself be hin- 
dered, if not abruptly foiled in his high de- 
signs. 

Yet this conduct in man is begotten not 
more by his resident greed than by his pitia- 
ble faithlessness. Believing that he has no 
sure source of perpetual and abundant sup- 
plies, he thinks he must grasp and hold what 
is in sight. Not knowing that God deals 
with us as we deal with others, he fixes his 
faith in what he has rather than in Him who 
is, and lets go with a reluctant groan even 
that portion of his stores which must go 
for the necessities of his own family. Could 
he but crucify self and rise from his devo- 
tions to Mammon, because of a consuming 
vision of the All-giver, his dammed-up 
wealth would resume its joy-giving circula- 
tion; the eyes of all his dependents would 



42 Human Occupation 

brighten; the wheels of his commerce would 
accelerate; blessings would flow forth to all 
mankind, and return again to himself as cast 
out bread incoming from the waters. Herein 
would obtain his double blessing. 

While it is chargeable to all nations of 
men that the glitter of gold holds their gaze, 
the new birth of plutocracy is preeminently 
within the States. 'Tor wheresoever the 
carcass is there the eagles are gathered to- 
gether/' Because this broad and virgin do- 
main was ripe with accessible wealth, there 
have been hatched at home and attracted 
from the four quarters of the earth a con- 
gregating brood sedulously bent on parti- 
tioning among themselves this newly dis- 
covered Eldorado of the west. 

Their opportunity can hardly be doubted. 
Widely removed from all formidable powers, 
America has had little to contend with in 
war. Her mountains, her forests, her 
plains and her seas abound in all the natural 
riches that make a nation great. Steam and 
electricity, both modern and commanding 
inventions, have here been introduced, and 
the nature of the surface together with the 
dimensions of the continent have made them 



Working for Wealth 43 

a potent power in the hands of a mighty 
people. Gigantic industries have been 
built up which operate through multiplied 
branches and feeders throughout the conti- 
nent and over the entire world. 

So great have become men's resources of 
wealth and what wealth commands that 
men almost dream of human independence, 
or if they acknowledge dependence at all, it 
is only upon nature, and its products. That 
man who has this material empire under his 
feet admits no superior, but himself is lord 
of all he surveys, forgetting that the earth's 
crust is but a wafer and that even the gran- 
ite of the everlasting hills may at any mo- 
ment be dissolved. Dependence upon God, 
the very thing that man, for his own secur- 
ity needs to feel, and the very thing that God 
most desires he should feel, is what man in 
this highhanded age has all but forgotten, 
and those in particular who feel themselves 
possessed of other resources, such as wealth, 
knowledge, prominent connections and com- 
manding positions. Why will man, when 
on God's bounties and goodness he is built 
up into extensive possessions and positions 
of power, forget his God and assert his own 



44 Human Occupation 

independence? If the question be seriously 
asked it is easily answered: It is because 
these things yield apparent strength. They 
become man's rod and staff, his wall of de- 
fense and his high tower. It is for this 
reason that God with great caution gives 
power into our hands, and for this reason, 
also, that He so suddenly withdraws it when 
once given, if abused. Men are prone to 
rely upon what they regard as their own 
power, hence God's grief and man's down- 
fall. 

It is such a condition that is confronting 
America today — abundance of possession 
and forgetfulness of God, vast natural re- 
sources, no man to fear, no famine to dread, 
no probability of plague. All these things, 
with fire and flood and lightning, are largely 
controlled by the intelligence and wealth of 
man. Cyclones and earthquakes are still at 
large, but their ravages are local and even 
they are under man's consideration as fit 
objects for alteration. God at intervals 
rends the earth or smites the race to call 
man to his knees; but the press and pulpit 
cast off the spell and coach the race back to 
self confidence and materialism. If the ad- 



Working for Wealth 45 

ministrations of God's judgments are but 
mild and persuasive, they are laughed at or 
not noticed. If they are severe and terror- 
izing, they are said to proceed from nature, 
not from an angry God, since God is only 
love. And thus, by gigantic strides, have 
the people of our age, and especially of our 
country, advanced to what, to say the least, 
is very unseemly in the eyes of the cultured 
Kingdom of Heaven. Parading, pomp, 
worldly possessions and terrestrial power, 
these have the preeminence, while the power 
of God is little sought and seldom displayed 
except in wrath and displeasure at the ways 
and state of man. 

Not but that we can recall our national 
infancy and the days of small things when 
the savage possessed the land and wild beasts 
roamed at large, and when the tools for con- 
quest were not at hand. When for free- 
dom's sake and that God might be wor- 
shiped in simplicity and in truth, the 
founders of our civilization forsook the 
scenes of their birth, passed the high seas 
with fear, and entered these forbidding 
coasts. The hearts that otherwise would 
have fainted, waxed strong with courage 



46 Human Occupation 

under the ministration of God. Men and 
women, together with their children, suf- 
fered the snows, the storms, the starvation 
and ill health, all incident to the settlement 
of the country. They hewed down the for- 
ests and cleared fields for corn. They 
erected for shelter and defense, rude houses 
of logs. They battled with the braves of 
the woods, they resisted the encroachment 
of tyranny, they raised the emblem of lib- 
erty and union and dedicated to themselves 
and their posterity a government of the peo- 
ple, by the people and for the people. 
Through all the vicissitudes of peace and 
war that union has been preserved. What it 
has cost in blood and treasure can not here 
be recounted, but the government still 
stands with ever unfolding sublimity. Its 
principles are stronger and better now than 
ever before and its borders embrace the 
broad continent from sea to sea. Wherever 
water is, her navy floats her flag, and on her 
coasts the sun forever shines. 

Our heritage from the past is all the gen- 
eration could with reason ask. The found- 
ing and fruition of our civilization seem in- 
spired and overruled of God. Our fore- 



Working for Wealth 47 

fathers cherished the highest principles, and 
laid the surest foundations for a state, the 
amazing future of which they had no ade- 
quate conception. While all provisions have 
been made for peace, the rendition of jus- 
tice has been secured even at the cost of fre- 
quent wars. No one has withheld aught 
from the country's good in peace or in war. 
And the present generation has come to the 
day of action in a country ready made, 
richly endowed, highly developed, and which 
has always been defended at any cost. 

Ours cannot be said to be a generation of 
tyrants; our fathers hurled off tyranny and 
dissolved slavery. We are not religious 
zealots; the contentions for creed and the 
wars for religion were waged in other lands. 
The nature of our government is not to co- 
erce the people or conquer the world. It is 
to give every man his freedom, his rights 
and his liberty in all things in the world. 
And it is for this reason, to a great extent, 
that the land of the free has become the 
stronghold of the capitalist and even of the 
greedy. No other country affords for him 
so fat or so secure a field. All things are 
before him for his possession, as he sees it. 



48 Human Occupation 

And here, under the protecting wings of the 
state, he centers for himself a mighty web 
of business, then preys on feebler men wher- 
ever man is found. 

It being God's pleasure to grant the 
prayers of his people, even though they pray 
for nothing better than wealth. He has gen- 
erously and most mercifully allowed men 
to go forward plundering this Eden of man, 
heaping up wealth, until its proportions are 
alarmingly great. Private power, if at all 
combined, can defy the voice of the masses, 
and the power of the state. And the alarm 
is caused not so much by what men have to 
date acquired, as by what they seem deter- 
mined to secure, and by the use they make 
of their possessions. Nothing can be more 
magnificent than an abundance of wealth in 
the land in the hands of those who are at all 
times and in all matters moved by the benev- 
olent Spirit of God. Such wealth can beau- 
tify the earth, make all things and all people 
to rejoice. Heaven itself would not be 
heaven without wealth. And the striking 
emulation, upon earth, of her streets, her 
gates, her palaces and her high towers would 
make possible Heaven's kingdom here., if 



Working for Wealth 49 

only the spirit of Heaven were evident 
among all people. The alarming thing — the 
peril of the age — is, not that there is too 
much wealth in the world, for there is no 
more here than God placed here, but the 
spirit in which men regard wealth. In fact 
it appears desirable that men should have 
wealth in great abundance could it but meet 
with general distribution, but wealth held 
in restraint quickly curses some and cer- 
tainly deprives others. It should freely 
flow from one to another, being a useful 
article but not a coveted one. Freely ye 
have received, freely give. 

It is more blessed to give than to receive 
from man, though a greater blessing still 
is to consciously receive from God. The 
ideal way is to freely give to man and to 
abundantly receive from God; and herein 
is God's program. "Freely ye have re- 
ceived, freely give." And again, "Give and 
it shall be given unto you; good measure, 
pressed down and shaken together, and run- 
ning over shall men give into your bosom. 
For with the measure you mete, withal it 
shall be measured to you again." This is 
the spirit that should characterize the world ; 



50 Human Occupation 

it is the spirit that Christ commends and 
commands; it is the spirit that exalts the 
race and gives this world resemblance to 
Heaven. 

As God sees the people of America today, 
He sees a mass of money seekers. They are 
born in pursuit of wealth, or have come 
here on that errand, and wherever riches are 
announced, thither men, with their families, 
turn in flocks. If the forests are most pro- 
ductive, all men rush to them; if the broad 
prairies seem most inviting, millions of souls 
settle there; if the mountains are said to be 
bursting with riches, they claim and com- 
mand the race ; if lands may be had for the 
taking, all stakes are pulled, the camp is 
struck and for their possession millions of 
men move. Is fortune most certain in the 
south? Thither do men resort. Does it 
wave spontaneously in Canada? All else is 
forgotten to go there. For its possession 
men delve deep into the earth, cross the 
high seas, plunder the face of nature, rob 
living men and spoil the dead. Hostile in- 
terests resort to law and even to arms. In 
fact the wars of the world have been little 
more than the contentions of men for ma- 



Working for Wealth 51 

terial goods and the springs of wealth. In 
the general stampede for wealth and the pos- 
session of the earth, people forget the spot 
of their birth, the home of their childhood, 
the graves of their ancestors, their structures 
of learning and the temples of God. They 
buy and sell and barter all these things be- 
cause wealth dominates their souls. Men 
will leave the flag of their nativity and the 
hope of Heaven to follow money. And 
worse than that, they will take their fami- 
lies with them. Did tyranny, oppression, 
persecution, lack of independence force mi- 
gration the act would need less apology. 
But for the unrest of the present age there 
is but one explanation. One motive creates 
the craze, the love of gain. Let one sugges- 
tion be made to any who may be contem- 
plating a move and is hovering in honest 
doubt. Will it be for the honor of God and 
the good of your family? Or is it for 
money only? If it is for the good of your 
family it will honor God and before two 
worlds you are justified. 

The struggle for wealth in America has 
broken the record of the world. The word 
fortune no longer means millions, but tens 



52 Human Occupation 

of millions, even billions. Such monumental 
wealth, unknown in previous ages, is not so 
amazing as the unabated disposition to make 
more wealth and the unprecedented facili- 
ties for doing so. The power of independ- 
ent states now trembles in the balance as 
compared with the power of individual men. 
And as the nature of our continent and the 
form of our government are both such as 
make and augment the millionaire and the 
laborer as well, it can hardly be expected 
that the great absorbing national peril of 
wealth getting shall subside at once. 

In the pursuit of wealth, America is not 
only successful beyond all expectation, but 
she finds herself tip-toeing at a giddy and 
dangerous height. Procuring wealth is far 
less dangerous than possessing it. And 
while we can see within our borders no sure 
symptoms of decay we cannot but feel that 
the road we are now traveling has been fatal 
to many powers that have gone before. 
They have been ushered into greatness by 
two steps, formation and development. 
From their greatness they descend by two 
steps, decay and downfall. Thus have 
Rome, Greece, Egypt, Babylon, Syria and 



Working for Wealth 53 

the more distant kingdoms of the east come 
and gone. With firebrand and sword they 
struggled to supremacy. There they en- 
joyed for a season in comparative repose 
the fruits of their earlier struggle. The ab- 
sence of necessity and the presence of wealth 
secured their corruption, decay set in and 
their certain downfall followed at once. 
America has not yet proclaimed her golden 
age, her age of blooming repose, nor does 
she look at once into the vortex of destruc- 
tion. She is still in the throes of the iron 
age, still climbing by herculean exertions, 
still rising to the amazement of the world. 
Her vastness daily becomes more vast, her 
power more powerful, her apparent glory 
more glorious. Without a doubt her great 
impression upon the world is yet to be made. 
But the higher a nation rises, and the more 
conspicuous she is at her full glory, the more 
notable is her downfall if it come. 

The downfall of America has not been 
widely believed in and of course it will not 
be, at least by her own citizens, until it 
comes and is a thing of the lamented past. 
But the general discontent at the usurpa- 
tion of the rich, the widespread alarm at the 



54 Human Occupation 

power of combined capital, the feeling that 
certain departments of the government are 
themselves muzzled and haltered by plu- 
tocracy, and the knowledge that the wail of 
the weak, and the prayer of the poor meet 
sympathy only in heaven, cause mutterings 
of revenge, thoughts of resistance and shak- 
ing of the head in doubt. The spirit of 
money getting and money taking befogs the 
temples of the state. Justice is rendered 
abortive, and laws, if passed at all, are still- 
born. 

Those of her citizens who are highly 
and truly patriotic have always warned 
against the sins of the nation. They have 
uttered their warnings, believing in the vic- 
tory of the state over her enemies, but they 
have consistently from the first to the pres- 
ent time named the things that eat like a 
canker at the vitals of the state. They cleave 
to the principles of those who penned the 
preamble, who first spread on paper the 
immortal constitution, who conceived of the 
Union, her starry emblem and her principles 
of justice, liberty and equality to all. They 
are seized with consternation at the abandon 
with which men pursue profit, all else for- 



Working for Wealth 55 

gotten. They see the people that desert the 
interests of their homes and neglect the 
training of the rising generation for the 
gain of gold, rewarded as have been such 
people in the past, by the collapse of their 
protection, the downfall of the state. That 
sin is not only a reproach, but an impending 
danger to every nation, they firmly believe. 
Their entreaties are raised to the govern- 
ment heads, their appeals are made to the 
people themselves, but the response comes 
that the country is prosperous, let her alone. 
So Israel strangled her prophets of old and 
perished for want of them, and Rome 
dogged down her reformers and died with- 
out hope. 

Let the nation rejoice that the frenzy for 
Wealth has not been of long duration, and 
that it may some day meet with sudden in- 
terruption; that reverses come as well as 
pure profit ; that there are still a large num- 
ber who are more fixed for principles than 
they are infuriated for wealth ; that the voice 
of the prophets is still heard in the land, 
and that God, who gave us our being and 
hopes in our future, still lives on high with 
an eye over all. The foregoing nations 



56 Human Occupation 

which have fallen into the embrace of their 
own sins, whose names have a memory only, 
had passed to a stage more mature than our 
own. They had reached their zenith and 
ceased to struggle. They had lain down in 
the lap of opulence and ease, they had at- 
tained the object of their earlier desires, 
luxury and wealth, and in tarrying to enjoy 
both, met their headlong and final fall. 

That our nation has begun to decline, no 
one can begin to presume. With her lands 
unsubdued, and her industries undeveloped 
she is rather in the inexorable toils of for- 
mation. She is not in the possession, but 
the pursuit of the fabulous wealth with 
which she will yet be entrusted. God only 
knows the far off bounds of our greatness. 
When many hundreds of years have opened 
to us their doors of opportunity, when our 
multiplied millions have entered in and per- 
formed the marvels of our future, when they 
have passed in and out onto the high level of 
our nation's greatness, then there will be 
time and pen to record what future course 
America will take. Whether her people will 
succumb to the emoluments of acquired 
wealth, or whether God's ideal will at last 



Working for Wealth 57 

be realized and a people be in possession of 
the wealth of the world whose affections are 
set, not on their possessions, but on the prin- 
ciples of the republic. If they rule in right- 
eousness and deal out of their goods to all 
men with joy, then God has secured His 
own and Perpetuity may be written on their 
banner. 

Should men dethrone the love of money 
and enthrone in their hearts the love of God 
and His works, they and all things else 
would become new. Society as we have it 
would abound in good will and good works. 
Every man would look not upon his own 
things, but as well upon the interests of 
others. God's will would be done on earth 
and among men as it is done in heaven 
among angels. That heavenly state of af- 
fairs would indeed be the heavenly king- 
dom. Injustice, fraud, knavery, deceit, 
would fade away like the mist of the morn- 
ing. Man's every-day path would be il- 
lumined, doubts and darkness would vanish 
at once, and the whole world would be one 
of love and perpetual good will. 

As well might the birds become reptiles 
and the stars fall from the zenith as for 



58 Human Occupation 

man, who was created but a little lower than 
the angels and in the very image of God, 
and who is called with Christ to a work 
that angels might desire, to forsake his sta- 
tion and his calling to pursue the perilous 
road of wealth getting. As well might an- 
gels and men contend for the wealth in 
God's earth as for men to strive with each 
other for its possession. How must the 
spectacle appear in heaven when men, the 
crown of God's creation, are seen, in for- 
getfulness of all things else, struggling over 
each other for the possession of that which 
will only burn their hands! Could a king 
in his palace arise, draw the curtain and look 
in upon his own children contending with 
angry words and falling fists for the boun- 
ties of his own board, the scene would be 
no more revolting. That for which they 
fight is spread out in abundance, while that 
in reserve is many times as much. If all 
should sit down to their appointments and 
partake in decency and devotion, the monu- 
mental abundance before them would still 
exceed their capacity, while the original, pa- 
ternal design would meet beauty in expres- 
sion. Yet the thing is done in the real 



Working for Wealth 59 

world and has been done so many thousands 
of years and by so many members of the 
human family that it is only in Heaven that 
the act gives the shock of displeasure. 

To be sure, the sin is recognized upon 
earth and for its control governments have 
been instituted since the dawn of history. 
But man still jostles his neighbor and strives 
against light, law and love for the posses- 
sion of that which in the end damns his soul. 
One man at least has spoken out against 
the pursuit of wealth. He speaks from ex- 
perience in two worlds. His warning voice 
comes back from the abyss of hell, a man 
that was borne down thither by the weight 
of gold. His final will and testament was, 
not that his cast-off wealth might be con- 
veyed without disbursement to his relatives, 
but that "thou wouldst send him (the mes- 
senger of God) to my father's house, for I 
have five brethren, that he may testify to 
them, lest they also come into this place of 
torment.' ' 



Ill 

WORKING FOR PLEASURE 

Man is created with both capacity and 
desire for pleasure, and for the gratification 
of both he is at liberty in a world-wide para- 
dise. From the flowers that float in his 
meadows to the orbs of light that fill the 
canopy, his eyes are feasted on nature at 
every passing hour. What he hears is the 
melody of the world he sees, and whatever 
sense he gives to creation, all things respond 
to give back to man the end of their being. 
Man's faculties, although diminutive in 
comparison, are similar to those of his Cre- 
ator, and in respect to capacity are but a 
little lower than those of the angels. 

Wherever he goes or wherever he looks, 
man is at liberty to enjoy all the universe, 
but he must not disobey its laws. If he does 
the fountain of his pleasures is dried up, 
the world-Eden is rendered invisible to him, 
his own conscience rises up against him, he 
is not approved by the world and he lives 
60 



Working for Pleasure 61 

under the conscious frown of Heaven. Obe- 
dience is the key to happiness and sin is the 
key to sorrow. This world is said to differ 
from Heaven, and it does. It differs, no 
doubt, in its physical order and in its moral 
order it certainly does. The immaculate 
cleanness of Heaven, the imperishable light, 
the rapturous music, the angelic awe, the 
visible presence of Deity, are all objects of 
perpetual joy to all who inhabit Heaven, — 
God, angels and men. And what man is 
to be in heaven he should approximate upon 
earth, not only as respects his conduct, but 
his enjoyments. 

To believe he has capacity for pleasure in 
this world, man but needs comparison with 
other animals. The reptile, deprived of rea- 
son and utterance, is consigned to an exist- 
ence among the bogs and bayous. To him lo- 
comotion is difficult and speed is impossible. 
To seize upon his necessary food all his 
waking hours and instinct are required. The 
greater part of his time he lies dormant, 
while the world of life and activity, with 
perpetual song, goes on its way rejoicing. 
A concert in Heaven would mean nothing to 
him. Yet there are myriads of beings in 



62 Human Occupation 

God's creation that have less form, less ac- 
tivity, less life, fewer faculties for pleasure 
than has the reptile. He has millions of in- 
feriors, but he has not the capacity to even 
know that. The eagle is given a realm of 
activity above the clouds. She touches the 
earth at times, and in its loftiest peaks she 
frames her nest. Her view of the world 
must be sublime. She looks down on lakes 
and woods, prairies and cities, the activities 
of men and the far off disturbances of na- 
ture. Her eyes gleam where the stars shine, 
yet she snatches her living from the earth. 
Her vision and her mastery of space are 
superior to those of unaided man, but she, 
too, is deprived of utterance, save the one 
fearful scream that curdles the clouds and 
the voice that commands at the quartering 
of prey. She dreads nothing but man, but 
she dwells forever apart. What her enjoy- 
ments are no one can tell, but it is believable 
that what she sees and what she tastes con- 
stitute most of them. Although she sees 
the world she cannot analyze it. She neither 
reasons nor records. Of the content of hu- 
man society she knows nothing. Her exist- 
ence is wholly physical and her career tern- 



Working for Pleasure 63 

poral. When to man's physical organ of 
sight we add his faith, the spiritual power 
of sight, man surpasses the eagle even in 
vision; while by the power of his own in- 
ventions he commands more space without 
wings than the eagle does with wings. 

Of all God's creatures the eagle has the 
best organ of sight and the most imposing 
view; yet from the deep sea, the interior of 
the earth and the realm of imagination she 
is absolutely barred. Man enters all these 
with ease and rapidity, according to his 
learning and facilities. Man can not with 
the unaided ear hear so well as the hare, 
but he hears more. He not only hears the 
approach of the enemy and the crack of the 
gun, he hears the language of the world, the 
laughter and weeping of the world, and, 
with rapture, the music of the world. He 
knows what thunder is, and the solemn 
roar of the sobbing sea; he listens to the 
trickle of rills and the thunder of river falls. 
The music of all animate creatures comes to 
his ear and wherever nature utters her voice, 
man, and man only, is prepared to hear. 
Man derives more pleasure, more suffering 
and more profit from the sense of touch 

5 



64 Human Occupation 

than does any other animal. The world of 
bloom and perfume, by its cast off aroma, 
gives pleasure chiefly to man. And as to 
taste, this sense masters and debases man; 
but under control, and rightly used, it reaps 
for him far more blessings than for any 
other of its possessors. 

However, man gets his distinction in the 
world, not because of the superiority of his 
senses, but by the endowment of reason and 
from this also he derives his chief pleasure. 
It is not because man can go out into the 
world and behold it, but he can bring the 
world home with him. He can lie in seclu- 
sion within solid walls, incarcerated in a 
dungeon and yet be a man of the universe. 
He can there reproduce what he has seen, 
what he has heard, and his total experience 
without. Man in repose can look into the 
present world, the world above, and the 
world below. He can revolve the universe 
in his mind and realize it. He can hear its 
language and its music; he can review its 
outlines and its many templed interior. Its 
countless millions arrayed in reality march 
before him, and everything that has voice 
utters its speech to him. 



Working for Pleasure 65 

The beasts may roam among the solitudes 
of the mountains, but their communion is 
not with the stars, nor with their Creator. 
Their only prayer is the forest roar for food, 
and their only universal service is to give 
their full-grown persons up in substance to 
man. As for immortality it is not theirs to 
enjoy, or even to contemplate. Their con- 
cern in this world is not with temples of 
learning, or of worship, or with the elabora- 
tion of the structure of state; only with food, 
with friendly shelter and with self preserva- 
tion. Man not only compasses the land, but 
in floating palaces he traverses the high 
seas, feasting his eyes, and threading the 
silken skeins of universal Science. Wherever 
islands stud the sea or continents have their 
bulky being, man goes forth in joy, glorying 
in the superiority of his own creation. That 
this world is not Heaven must, indeed, be 
admitted. It is subject to storm and doomed 
to nocturnal darkness. It is a mere shell at 
best, and bursts or throbs or overthrows as 
permitted by its creative and controlling 
Head. The sun, the winds and the seasons 
are all most exacting, although they them- 
selves are but slaves. Man in time discov- 



66 Human Occupation 

ers that this world, the place of his origin 
and early education, is subject to law divine. 
If, then, he but determines on obedience to 
its laws, his high resolve and his discovery 
alike, are productive of good. Let Nature 
fret and throb ; it all belongs to God and can 
do no more than He permits. By nature's 
violence man approaches rectitude and with 
rectitude he reaps perpetual pleasure. 

Man's love of pleasure is not only keen 
and constant; it is legitimate. Under right 
and original conditions pleasure is good for 
the race. Not all things were made for man 
to taste, not all were made for him to smell, 
to hear, to behold ; but all things were made 
for man to enjoy if pleasure can come from 
true profit. God gives to us pleasure by 
smiting the forest with wind, by tossing the 
sea with the tempest, by sowing the earth 
with bloom, by casting abroad stars all over 
the heavens. He gives voice to the birds, 
the beasts and the floods. From His storms 
men gather magnificence and from his calm 
they derive solid comfort. The Mind that 
with gold nailed up the nocturnal canopy 
and which commands the waters like molten 
silver to flow, has appointed our race to 



Working for Pleasure 67 

ennobling pleasure universally; not indul- 
gence, not license, not pleasure at the ex- 
pense of others; or in opposition to the de- 
crees of His own exalted throne. But with 
industry and devotion to all those high in- 
terests of God and men, it is ours to be as 
free as the birds and almost as God-like as 
the angels. O Nature, thou art lovely ! As 
created and without alteration, thou art a 
universe jeweled in splendor, lined and cush- 
ioned throughout for man at ease. Thy 
broad lands and thy pacific seas, thy myriad 
creations, thy light, thy love, thy bliss — un- 
polluted, thou art Eden! 

All things are man's, created for his use 
and pleasure on one unalterable condition. 
He may pass through and possess this earth, 
but he must obey. He must recognize and 
regard the organized and necessary laws of 
Him who framed the world, or harmony is 
lost and so is happiness. In the far off be- 
ginning God created the heavens and the 
earth. In earth's most lovely part He sit- 
uated man. All things were his, all ave- 
nues were open to him, and above his head 
but one requirement was placed. The uni- 
verse had an order which, in other words, 



68 Human Occupation 

was obedience. The exact opposite would 
be disobedience and disorder. No greater 
alternatives were ever placed before a man 
than were placed before the first man — order 
and bliss with obedience, or disorder and 
misery with disobedience. Like most men, 
he preferred the former, but admitted the 
latter. 

It was the original sin, combined with the 
sum of sin in consequence, that has rendered 
the world unhappy. Without sin, man's 
whole career on earth would have been one 
of perpetual pleasure. That it has not been 
one of pleasure may safely be left to the 
united testimony of those who record his- 
tory, both current and past. That state of 
man which history first records is his cre- 
ation in bliss ; the second is his sin, downfall 
and sorrow; while the balance of history is 
devoted to the delineation of wars, their 
causes, their conclusions, the creation and 
ruin of states, parties, cliques, and conspira- 
cies. At no time in history has sin been 
absent from the world save in the rosy dawn 
of creation. The Kingdom of Righteous- 
ness has at times been almost extinct. Those 
centuries of woe, known as the Dark Ages, 



Working for Pleasure 69 

covering three-fourths of the Christian era, 
were dark only because of the preponderance 
of sin. Every human government that has 
ever been originated has been conceived in 
sin, or conceived to put down or to with- 
stand sin. Every party exists to combat or 
to promote the selfishness of man. The 
church itself, founded and perpetuated to 
rescue man from sin, has never been with- 
out an abundance of its God-given work. 
No argument is ever asked to prove the uni- 
versality of sin. Man neither doubts nor 
denies it. Men, confronted by guilt, if they 
defend themselves at all, do so only by 
countercharging that sin is universal. 

I am not affirming that sin and pleasure 
go together ; on the contrary, they never do. 
If ever they come together, if sin gives mo- 
mentary pleasure, they immediately part and 
are opposed. It is misery that goes with 
sin, or follows in its wake. As sin dethrones 
happiness and makes its exit by the rear 
door, misery enters at the front. No one 
stands opposed to ennobling pleasure, while 
all men are opposed to sin. They dread it, 
they hate it, they fear it; yet, unless they 
admit of more than human help, they em- 
brace it. 



70 Human Occupation 

Sin has blasted the pleasure of this 
world.* 

I. Because of its havoc in the human 
family. To clarify my meaning one con- 
spicuous instance is given. In the summer 
of nineteen hundred six, as the aristocracy 
of America's greatest city were congregated 
upon the roof of Madison Square Garden to 
witness some performance, a man of promi- 
nence, arising in the rear and leaving his 
bride seated, walked rapidly to a front table 
where was seated his enemy, another man of 
prominence. Addressing him, he said : "You 
have ruined my family and you deserve to 
die." And with the announcement he fired 
three shots, all of which took mortal effect, 
and the seated man fell under the table 



* Perhaps this statement admits of comment. 
It is only that the stream is roily that is universally 
agreed upon. The origin of the roil may not by all 
be clearly known. The savage and wandering na- 
tions render their feeble opinion that the stream 
was once clear, but hasten to admit it is roily enough 
now. More enlightened nations have little difficulty 
in tracing all human misery back to somebody's 
wrong act. or volition. The origin of trouble is so 
remote that there is absolutely no human means of 
following back to its discovery. But the reason, 
based on all we can see and know, is supplemented 
by the Divine affirmation that trouble is caused by 
sin. 



Working for Pleasure 71 

dead. The daily papers abound in the nar- 
ration of such crimes, though no pen can 
record their consequences ; and yet what the 
papers reveal is but that part of sin which 
is most exposed and violent. What is thus 
brought to prominence is but a fraction of 
the smothered-up reality. 

Who can believe there is happiness where 
there is lust, hatred, revenge, uncontrolled 
appetite? These things are, or create, de- 
sires that render men unhappy; and cannot 
be gratified without wrecking society, at 
least locally. The map of America shows a 
village which at one time had twenty wid- 
ows in a population of five hundred. Their 
husbands had been sent to the grave by over- 
mastering sin. Some, after years of de- 
pendence upon their wives, had succumbed 
to lingering illness; but most of these hus- 
bands (so called) had committed suicide. It 
will require no explanation that the suffer- 
ings of these men and their families, both 
before and after the climax, must have been 
great. A sane man does not commit this 
culminating crime until he believes his suf- 
ferings are unbearable. 

It is impossible to believe there is happi- 



72 Human Occupation 

ness where graft and public plunder abound. 
Where such conditions obtain it simply 
means (it is dreadful that it is so) that 
robbers and traitors have been promoted to 
public trust. When once elevated they not 
only harbor the wicked, they seduce the 
clean. Men of their own character are 
sought out and lodged in subordinate posi- 
tions ; all offices are filled full of men of one 
purpose and one understanding, and corrup- 
tion, bloated and besotted, sits on the throne 
of state, for fraud, like a river, must have 
banks continuous and tight or it will leak. 
Xot only do those in office and on salary 
manipulate public funds, their interests reach 
down and dovetail with the aspiring greed 
of outsiders. Such relations must be w r ell 
covered by the prostitution, if possible, of 
at least a part of the legal profession. Such 
public corruption has its origin with the peo- 
ple, of course ; but, once enthroned, it emits 
a stenchful influence repulsive to decency, 
and tolerable only to those who are already 
corrupt. The climax of such conduct must 
ultimately come. Some crime is exposed; 
some "gang" is found out; their allies prove 
to be numerous; the report comes to the 



Working for Pleasure 73 

ears of innocent friends, and distress pre- 
vails throughout the universe, or so far as 
the circle of relations exists. Not only this, 
but to those patriotic and truly noble such 
revelations come with indescribable horror. 
The youth lose faith in their neighbors and 
in their own government; parents are con- 
fused and put to shame ; the party at fault is 
humiliated, and the whole country not only 
suffers chagrin, but they suffer a tenfold 
loss. 

Happiness is impossible where civil or in- 
ternational war prevails. In every respect 
and in every locality the nations involved 
are disturbed. Families are invaded by the 
call to arms; the bloom of manhood is hur- 
ried into danger and to death; wives and 
maidens of tender years have torn from their 
presence their best beloved; little children 
are left fatherless to pray for their daily 
bread at the knees of their young mothers; 
the hoary headed are bowed down in tears 
over lifeless forms of their returning dead; 
the wail of the land goes up, but it is war. 
The nation sends forth her columns to the 
throb of martial music, arrayed in uniform, 
and flying her proud colors. As though their 



74 Human Occupation 

cause were divine (and that of one side 
sometimes is) they hasten to the theater of 
fire and blood. The navies overspread the 
sea before the shock, but, often after it, they 
are imbedded in the muck at the bottom, 
or are cast up along the shore. National 
treasure, hard earned, and paid from the 
parsimony of the people, goes down by mil- 
lions, hurled from utility as stars fall from 
heaven. The estates of families and all that 
they hold dear are ridden down by the 
wheels of artillery or consumed in the flame 
of war. The marches and privations of 
armies before the battle, the struggle to the 
death on the field, the passage to the enemy 
after the fight, the torture and starvation 
while incarcerated in the prison of the 
enemy, are a part of the misery of war. 
One who had seen its realities, yet never 
suffered defeat, has summed up war in one 
descriptive sentence: "War is Hell. ,, 

War among the nations, corruption in po- 
litical high places, social feuds, fires and pas- 
sions are some of the sinful expressions 
which make the human family sick with 
consequences. But when it is considered 
that these constitute but a small part of the 



Working for Pleasure 75 

woe that weighs down the race, that what 
gives man more pain and sorrow are his 
secret sins and his private faults, we may 
believe that sin tortures the world. And 
yet it is not what we feel or what we ob- 
serve, or what our parents have narrated in 
our hearing, but what history records, that 
calls forth the universal admission that sin 
has blasted the pleasure of this world. His- 
tory describes the world as ever drenched 
in human blood, ever effervescing in war, 
ever hiding its face and sitting in tears; as 
full of revenge, theft, murder and lust. 
Tyrants have held the race by the throat, 
masters have held their fellows as slaves. 
Men, women and children have been bought, 
sold and driven like dumb cattle. If sin is 
the human act that disobeys God, and is a 
detriment to the high interests of man, and 
if history records the truth, sin has blighted 
the happiness of man in this world.* 



* To easily believe the doctrine of universal sin 
as taught in the sacred Scriptures, one must con- 
sider two very important facts: that for this world 
there has been provided a Savior to save men 
from their sins, and that this Savior entered upon 
His earthly office-work nearly two thousand years 
ago. So it is easily believable that what the 
world was once it is no longer. Its blackness 



76 Human Occupation 

II. Because sin has thwarted God's expec- 
tations and deeply pained Him. 

Without doubt, God's designs in peopling 
this paradise of continents and seas were to 
give being and blessing to a spiritual nobil- 
ity worthy of similarity to their Creator. 
This world and our race are no experiment. 
There was a better world in existence and 
in operation when this one was founded. 
God Himself authorizes the statement that 
the human race is created lower than the an- 
gelic host. The blessed state of our first 
parents cannot be doubted. They were cre- 
ated in innocence ; their mission was one of 
ease and elevated enjoyment, and their sur- 
roundings were nothing less than a garden 
of earthly paradise. They had no sin, but 
like all other members of the race, they ad- 
mitted sin into their lives, and, having done 
so, with sorrow acknowledged the fact. 



has turned to dawn; its savagery is somewhat 
mitigated. The fact of universal sin seems not 
to be denied, however. Only one person has ever 
gone on record as having lived in the flesh with- 
out sin: that one is Jesus himself. As soon as 
men are aware of what sin is, they find them- 
selves under the necessity of struggling against 
its power. And it is harder for man to shake 
off the power of rooted sin than it is for the 
earth to throw off its deeply planted mountains. 



Working for Pleasure 77 

Herein is the calamity of the creation, the 
woe of the universe. From this sin and its 
consequent contagion resulted the ruin of 
the race, the burning regret, the deepening 
sorrow of God, and the literal death of His 
Son. The fall of man brought to grief two 
worlds. Sorrow spread through Heaven 
as suffering spread through earth. Angels 
were in tears and God in dismay because 
man was in sin. What transpired above is 
not fully revealed, but we know that God's 
grief was genuine, for His original purpose 
was sincere, and His redemptive measures 
were without precedent. 

In all ages that have since transpired, 
God has labored with the love of a parent 
for the redemption of His deeply sinful peo- 
ple. By the flood He has tried the process 
of selection; through His chosen people He 
has introduced a system of rewards and pun- 
ishments, but all His overtures for the re- 
demption of man have culminated in His 
forgiveness of man as He died for man's in- 
famy upon the cross. All that is good in 
man has been appealed to, and all that is bad 
in him has been threatened with punishment. 
Yet man sins and Heaven suffers. Christ 



78 Human Occupation 

Himself is still buffeted, jeered, despised, 
cursed and crucified afresh. If He does not 
stagger under the world today, He bleeds at 
heart because He sympathizes with the cre- 
ation here below. 

The statement has been offered that sin 
has blighted man's happiness in this world 
because, having entered, it has ruined the 
race and grieved Heaven forever. Let the 
question now be raised : Can man, conscious 
of the reality of things, be expected to lead 
a life of gaiety, or pursue, to any undue ex- 
tent, the paths of pleasure ? Not while men 
by thousands are perishing and Heaven suf- 
fers for the sins of man. In the presence 
of paramount truth it is more to be expected 
that men should w r alk soberly, and speak 
with gravity, knowing what the solution of 
things is. Nature is lovely, but ecstatic 
pleasure is not becoming, even where there 
exists no suggestion of sin or suffering or 
their consequences. Especially does it seem 
incredible that one who knows himself to 
be under guilt should partake for a moment 
even of the spirit of pleasure which only 
consoles him and lulls him into forgetfulness 
of his actual relations. He should not pain 



Working for Pleasure 79 

God any more, nor draw out longer the suc- 
cession of events which only seals his fate. 
When man is guilty before God, and God is 
gracious enough to impress him with the 
fact, his chief concern should be to retain 
and intensify that impression until it at last 
drives him to some solitude for prayer. 
There he may repent, receive pardon, see 
the burden of sin rolled off his back and 
rolled into the deep sea of everlasting for- 
getfulness. Then, indeed, he may have a 
degree of joy; yet that, by reason of the 
facts in the case, is naturally subdued. For 
how can it be natural for one escaping from 
the gory field of war to rejoice greatly, even 
though he be saved, while ten times his num- 
ber of brethren have perished on the field? 
Or while other ten, ignoring their danger, 
and their opportunity of salvation, persist in 
dying where they are and as they live? 

The human soul has not lost all its possi- 
bilities for enjoyment. Although the state 
of man is depressing, the admitted child of 
God, especially, has grounds for deep joy. 
Speaking first of the man God has sought 
and redeemed, we may say that the chief joy 
of his life is to honor God and enjoy Him 

6 



80 Human Occupation 

forever. This joy was designed for man in 
man's creation; it was originally planted in 
his bosom paramount to all pleasure; it is 
regained with the new birth — the new born 
purpose of man; it glows in man's breast 
here, in this world, and it will be an un- 
quenchable flame of joy in his soul in that 
world to come. Man's fall and redemption 
have not diminished the grounds for this 
joy. On the other hand, the debt of man 
being great and his salvation having cost 
Heaven so much, he has a fuller vision of 
God's nature and bears a joy in proportion. 
This is not only man's chief joy, but with- 
out this joy above all, man's joy is a waning 
torch. Man cannot pretend he is happy. 
Unless he is happy, he can convince no one 
in this universe that he is happy, not even 
himself. And without man's chief joy there 
is no joy. But if he has honored and glori- 
fied God before men, and if he reaps a re- 
ward of joy from this source, he also reaps 
from all sources. For if he has the unquali- 
fied praise of God he will bear with it, at 
least, the respect of men. 

This joy, like all others, is not to be 
sought or secured as an end; it comes as a 



Working for Pleasure 81 

consequence. The way to procure it is not 
to work for joy, but to work for God and 
fellow men. Work for God's highest honor 
and man's highest good and joy will resume 
in the heart her natural throne. Indeed, 
Christian happiness is not even a considera- 
tion or a part of the program, nor is it in 
the least to be calculated upon. The man 
who prays, "O Lord, give me joy," or the 
man that attempts charity or exhortation to 
get joy, makes the exertion, to be sure, but 
receives no reward. He neither glorifies 
God nor experiences the joy. Joy has its 
flow and its fountain, and to trace the flow 
back to the fountain is to discover the soul 
in a pleasurable state of excitement in con- 
sequence of some pure and appropriate good. 
No joy is comparable to that of the contem- 
plation of and harmony with God. 

Next to this is the joy of cooperation 
with God. That cooperation has been made 
possible by the appointments of the Head of 
the church Himself. He regards his fol- 
lowers, not as servants, but as friends, co- 
laborers and associates with Himself in the 
great work of evangelizing the world. He 
gently leads them forth to the task; He 



82 Human Occupation 

shepherds them; shields them; appoints 
their ways, and renders powerless their sub- 
tle assailants. The work to which he leads 
them yields no earthly gain, is void of em- 
bellishment, partakes of solemnity and often 
of danger. It savors of unpopularity and 
even of opposition. His cause has often bled 
or burned, having been assailed by sword or 
fire. Yet His banners have never suffered 
defeat and His servants have conquered all 
with a radiant, holy joy. 

Again, nature may be enjoyed. There 
are only two reasons why it may not be en- 
joyed, viz. : the calamity of the race in con- 
sequence of sin, and the consequent effect 
upon God and the universe. Nature still 
stands forth in all her loveliness. The mag- 
nificence of the heavens is spread above us 
night by night. The sun, serene, rises on a 
thousand glories every day. Night and noon 
and varying seasons never cease the order 
of their stupendous alterations. The waters 
of the seas, of the clouds and of ten thou- 
sand living streams perform their distant cir- 
cuits and earth yields her all to man. Should 
man be commissioned with leisure and walk 
forth beyond the bounds of his own mem- 



Working for Pleasure 83 

ory, among the sinless, innocent things of 
earth, another Eden meets his every view — 
Eden without man. All things declare, 
without a voice, that they are the works of 
God, resigned to their station and their mis- 
sion, are here to bless and to be blessed and 
are free from the great transgression. The 
finny tribe aspires not to the life of the birds 
which fill the forests and look down on the 
fields, but restraining their joy, exert their 
being where first and forever appointed. The 
birds desire no mission but their own; the 
beasts lie down in peace and ease and dread 
the approach of nothing but man. With 
what resignation all things live and die, ex- 
cepting only man, for he alone looks back- 
ward and forward, downward and upward, 
trembles at his fate, and meets his record 
and his sentence according to his moral de- 
serts. Could man resume his original sta- 
tion, could the race entire be baptized from 
all her history and her fallen nature, the 
earth might resume again the aspects of an 
Eden. But the crown of Eden was embod- 
ied man, and man disclaims his own, his 
proper station. 

There is another pleasure that may well 



84 Human Occupation 

be sought, even the companionship of men. 
Man should be his fellow man's best visible 
associate. It was so intended and is so ad- 
vised. Where man is sincere, has not given 
over the faith, possesses himself with virtue 
and benevolence, he is, by the help of God, 
man's best companion in the flesh. His so- 
ciety is to be sought and his words to be 
held in high regard. Such men commune 
together as lower orders of beings do not. 
There is a bond, a fellowship, a mutual be- 
nevolence, a vivid love, a tenfold relation, a 
blending of spirits resembling that above. It 
is stronger than it could have been had sin 
not entered the world, and it is not exclu- 
sive. It is accessible to every seeker, free to 
every one who asks and is open to every one 
that knocks at the door. 

On the whole, the man who accepts pleas- 
ure as a consequence of wise and good re- 
lations is the only one that finds it. He seeks 
it not as an end ; yet he is in full possession 
of it, and what he has bears the golden seal 
of genuineness. Because it is a direct gift 
from Heaven, it stands the test of time and 
eternity. Tribulation may come in like a 
flowing tide, and like its ebb his possessions 



Working for Pleasure 85 

may vanish; but his joy comes not from 
what he procures or retains, but from the 
credit with which he has acted before God. 

While she is seldom sought by those who 
rightly reason, and while she is hardly found 
if sought, Pleasure rears and adorns her 
temple and proclaims herself a goddess. Be- 
fore man's gaze she flaunts her darling 
promises and draws ten thousand devotees. 
Some for indulgence of appetite, some for 
indulgence of passion, some seek her corri- 
dors that they may there be cradled in the 
abyss of intoxication. But all who pursue 
pleasure without are conscious of misery 
within. Remorse and reaction, with thoughts 
in a swarm, troop through the soul, and, 
that they may drown their feelings, men 
plunge again, with all of them, into the vor- 
tex of pleasure. 

Regarding this hazard, a few statements 
may be offered as established facts, for what 
is true of pleasure seeking has, by this world, 
long since been found out. Men have gone 
in after pleasure and come out with tears; 
they have sought her with carelessness, they 
have emerged with grief; they have cast in 
their life and they have harvested death. 



86 Human Occupation 

Pleasure seekers have been numerous in all 
ages, but always to their woe. King's pal- 
aces have emptied their nobility into the vor- 
tex of pleasure, but no one has ever come 
out with more than a wasted self, a ruined 
record and an obliterated future. Their first 
verdict to the world is that those who pur- 
sue pleasure never find reward. The object 
of their desires throws up a pleasing appear- 
ance and arches heaven like a rainbow. The 
rumor has arisen that at her bases crystal 
fountains gush forth from beds of gold and 
flow forever through meadows of bloom; 
but those who have sought these founda- 
tions have never found them. She ever re- 
cedes into deeper and darker and more for- 
bidding recesses, until at last her suitors are 
swallowed up into everlasting oblivion. Or, 
if they return in ruins, their united testimony 
is that the rewards of pleasure seeking are 
only ashes and death. 

As though the business of life did not re- 
quire us to eat and drink that which is suf- 
ficient and best, men drop life's work and 
take up eating and drinking as a business. 
Such becomes their primary, and at last, 
their only business. Their commission has 



Working for Pleasure 87 

been ignored ; decision has been cast off ; the 
step is uneven, and now the only regularity 
they have is that with which they rise to 
their meat and drink. Let all they can com- 
mand contribute to their insatiate appetite; 
let the stomach consume their substance; 
they have but one god — the receptacle of 
their all. Family, friends, future, Heaven, 
and Him who is their only hope, are all sac- 
rificed, crucified and cast forever away. The 
man who sows to appetite reaps temporal 
misery and everlasting woes. 

Not a few of our mortal race have be- 
lieved in strangling appetite on the bed of 
its birth and nipping lust in the bud, and yet 
have thought this field a suitable one for the 
harvest of pleasure; that pleasure is to be 
found in society; that it consists in the flit- 
ting functions of the gay, the gaudy, those 
who converge in cliques, or set the pace for 
fluctuating fashion. This sin wings its way 
through a world of cleanliness and external 
decency, but its visitations are fatal to man. 
The men and women who have impressed 
their value upon the world have first set 
their heel upon the head of this folly. Rank, 
station, form, apparel, and the more frothy 



88 Human Occupation 

matters of society never desecrated their cal- 
culations. They have tasted enough in do- 
ing what they were called to do. If these 
things yield any pleasure, they bear it to 
those who regard them with no concern; 
while those who pant for the pleasures of 
society bind on themselves a burden of re- 
ward which, although it may have size and 
pretensions, is both hollow and combustible 
and perishes with the hour. 

In this age of unprecedented facilities for 
travel man is subject to another temptation. 
The lumbering vehicles of the past have 
been retired, and elegantly appointed cars, 
propelled by steam or electricity, more than 
take their place. Roads, laid in rock and 
railed with steel, cover the face of the conti- 
nent like a web. Rivers and canyons are 
bridged and mountains are tunneled, re- 
ducing heights and depths to a common 
level, and giving man's actions all the speed 
and freedom of a bird, save that he must 
confine his flights to the earth. Such ease 
and rapidity of travel make it possible for 
one with means to compass many parts of 
the earth while in permanence he is car- 
rying on very extensive labors. Work to 



Working for Pleasure 89 

the power of thousands may be going on in 
one locality, while the owner thereof may be 
vibrating between seaside and shops, moun- 
tain and valley, summer and winter. Those 
who have a competence readily find much 
pleasure in being thus winged around from 
coast to coast ; borne over the land and over 
the deep, lighting on every continent and 
touching a thousand isles of the sea. 

Herein men and angels again bear re- 
semblance, though resemblance is all, since 
man does not, in the physical state, traverse 
the skies or course among the planets. But 
both meet their distant appointments with 
the utmost ease and both have a compre- 
hensive view of all their domain. There is, 
however, this essential difference that back 
of his shining face the angel always has 
his God-given mission. He cleaves the blue 
ether between planets, but never without his 
credentials. He bends his course to all the 
outlying domains of the universe, but is as 
one sent. The business he conveys is that of 
the Most High. He represents but one king- 
dom, he serves but one court, he speaks for 
but one throne, he knows but one set of in- 
terests — the kingdom, the court, the throne, 



90 Human Occupation 

the interests of high Heaven. His frequent 
excursions to this world have always been 
in sincerity, in mercy, and for the good of 
man. The loving missionaries to the world 
have been those who, in pity, have come 
down from Heaven. Angels arrayed in light 
have been present to attend man's birth, his 
baptism and his burial. They have com- 
forted the homeless; they have fed the 
hungry; they have bound up the broken 
hearted; they have bathed the brow of the 
weary; they have sung to the night and 
awakened the day; they have blighted the 
earth and caused it to bloom; they have 
pronounced blessings and cursings; they 
have thrust in the sickle and reaped golden 
humanity for eternity. Through them God 
has been in evidence in the earth in all ages. 
From them man has had his vision. Through 
the angelic delegation the two worlds have 
met. Their overtures have been for peace. 
On the platform erected by their hands 
God's kingdom on the earth has been built 
in righteousness and truth. They have trav- 
eled the universe, but they have traveled 
without a mission, never. 

In the presence of such precision, in view 



Working for Pleasure 91 

of the kingdom of obedience above, mortal 
man would hide his face, and, if possible, 
his history. Man has traveled far and 
abroad, by land and by sea, with imposing 
manner, in the most pretentious inventions 
of his age, with attendants and henchmen, 
and flying colors; but why? and for what? 
and by whom commissioned? Excepting 
God's ministers and missionaries, and the 
ministers of state and of commerce, man's 
travels have been mainly for pleasure. He 
has gone without being sent or sent for; 
not on a mission of mercy, but of mere pas- 
time or pleasure. Seeking relaxation, 
change, having a desire for ease, wishing to 
feast his eyes upon the expanse of sea, or 
the mutations of the earth, or sometimes to 
compare with each other the stupendous 
achievements of man. All of which is good 
and allowable, but seldom appropriate in 
view of the foregoing facts that the world is 
fallen, the race is down, humanity is suffer- 
ing, is in imminent peril, and the world 
needs recovery now. But for these reasons, 
an hundred forms of pleasure might be al- 
lowed. But for them, man here and now 
might bathe perpetually in the bliss of orig- 



93 Human Occupation 

inal Eden and ultimate Heaven. But the 
harvest time is on, the laborers are few, the 
sun is high, the summer will soon be spent 
and men will not all be in the embrace of 
the Kingdom. 

It is such considerations that should hover 
over the summer resort, the broad boule- 
vard, the grand plaza, the ornate ball room, 
the gorgeous theater, the social conventions 
of men. Let those who find their master or 
hope for their Savior in the meek and lowly 
Nazarene, ask how He spent His time, 
where, and by what means, and for what 
purpose He traveled, how He spoke at so- 
cial functions and what amusements He at- 
tended. "Must Jesus bear the cross alone 
and all the world go free ?" 



IV. 

WORKING TO AVOID WORK 

Could a youth of years have a bird's-eye 
view of this world, all animate creation by 
him would be seen in motion. The fish of an 
hundred seas, the birds that navigate mid- 
air, the beasts of the distant hills, and man, 
most eminent of all, fill up the earth and 
make it swarm with activity. The lowest 
forms of animal being, submerged in brine 
and remote from man, are, during the total 
of their days, engaged in their appointed 
functions — filtering water for food, or lay- 
ing sea bottom foundations for man. A 
quantity of water, scooped upon the beach, 
leaves countless writhing forms, and reced- 
ing, carries back to sea even more than it 
leaves. The whale, should he navigate the 
seas from pole to pole, might anywhere fill 
his maw with ten thousand thousand things 
that live. Yet, not one of these but has ap- 
pointed its incessant work of life. 

Living things must act or die. It is ap- 
93 



94 Human Occupation 

pointed unto them all once to live and once 
to die. While they live they work, but 
should they cease to work they die. They 
may die by parts, one organ at a time, or fall 
at once into total uselessness and premature 
death. Let the eyes be closed and they die. 
Let the arms hang and they die. Relieve the 
feet of activity and they cease to live. Or 
one may shelve the whole body at once on 
the cot, and it will soon be relegated to the 
tomb. It is already an open secret that we 
are in a world of work, where all things and 
all people work of necessity and where, if 
we do not work, as circumstances and in- 
spiration require, we first fall from grace, 
then from recognition, then from life. 

To avoid work is to consent to die; it is 
to become an exception to all things that do 
work ; it is to resist nature, and rebel against 
God who has commanded us to work; it is 
to leave our mission unfulfilled; it is to leave 
out selves and others to starve; it is to con- 
sent to live lower than the beasts. It is not 
clear that any creature at all except man has 
openly resolved not to work and fill the place 
to which it is appointed. Most men work 
It can hardlv be charged to the men of 



Working to Avoid Work 95 

America that they avoid work. They may 
misdirect their work, they may pull on the 
wrong oar, they may work too hard, but it 
is not chargeable to them as a class that 
they avoid work. Yet some do, and by so 
doing they are clothed in rags ; their families 
come to want and in Heaven they are said 
to be worse than the faithless. "He that 
provideth not for his own is worse than an 
infidel." 

To avoid work is anything but easy. In- 
deed, the one that refuses to work is the 
very one that does work. To reject work 
is to accept labor or death. I once observed 
some herdsmen removing cattle from one 
estate to another. One of the driven beasts 
became frightened and resisted. It bolted 
from the herd and from the highway. 
Mounted men made good the pursuit, but it 
spent the day chasing over fields and through 
barbed fences. It sank down at night, far 
from its proper destination, to be sure, but 
torn by thorns and barbs and whips. It was 
burning with thirst and faint with hunger. 
No provisions were made for it where it lay 
all the night, and with the rising of another 
day it could but submit to its masters and 

7 



96 Human Occupation 

rejoin the herd. I have read of two kings, 
ancients of the orient. Both had been 
raised to eminence and tranquility, then both 
resisted God. They would not do His bid- 
ding, though they were with patience re- 
peatedly warned. One fell by degrees until 
he perished with his army in the sea. The 
other was deposed, driven from among men 
and lived as a beast of the field, until he 
lifted up his eyes unto Heaven. Then were 
his reason and his kingdom restored, and as 
he again mounted the throne and raised the 
scepter, his first announcement was, "Now 
I praise and honor and extol the King of 
Heaven; all whose works are truth and his 
ways are judgment and those who walk in 
pride, He is able to abase." 

The motive of those who avoid work is 
to find ease, but they are at once put to an 
open shame. No conduct is less respected 
among men, or more condemned in Heaven. 
To avoid work is often to let it fall on some 
other one — one who is weaker or already 
overworked, or both. 

It is to be admitted that the appearance of 
the unaltered world is not inviting to man. 
He who feels called to a new country has be- 



Working to Avoid Work 97 

fore him something great and grand, but 
most forbidding. Not a pier or a harbor to 
admit him, not a home to receive him, or a 
friendly arm to embrace him. Through the 
woods which park the coast, the teeth and 
eyes of savage beasts appear. Aspiring pines 
wail on the mountain sides, but despise the 
feeble beginnings of a far-off civilization. 

The landing may be made, the cabin 
reared, the stump acre cleared for corn, and 
all enclosed with mighty riven rails, but 
swamps forbid and rivers run athwart. The 
solid gold and silver, locked in granite 
vaults, are hardly reached. The mill, the 
bridge, the smoking road, the temple of 
worship, the halls for learning, the cham- 
bers of government are present only in imag- 
ination. A few families only are settled 
among savages, struggling for the loaf, de- 
prived of friends and familiar scenes, but if 
they are commanded and sustained by their 
own gracious God, He is their every need. 
He is their consolation, their inspiration, 
their meat and their drink. Such settlements 
have been made and if made with faith in 
God, they succeed. Faith looks forward, 
sees plantations grow into cities, sees for- 



98 Human Occupation 

ests converted into homes, mountains yield 
their coal and their gold, swamps bloom 
with produce, railroads penetrate the inte- 
rior, millions are reared where hundreds 
settled, a mighty empire comes to stay and 
man is master of all he surveys. Such was 
the settlement in faith of our own blessed 
land, the new empire of the west; such is 
becoming the progress in Africa — the faith 
of faithful Abraham brought down to mod- 
ern times. "Only be strong and of good 
courage. ,, Trust in the Lord and He will 
bring it to pass. But to be faint at heart 
and certainly to shrink from work is to fail. 
God pities all people, but the nature of this 
world is not easy to the sluggard. If he re- 
fuses to build, the sleet and the winter pile 
in upon him. If he refuses to till the soil 
and subdue the weeds, the .earth will not 
yield her fruits. Where fences are down, 
feuds spring up, and, if not yarded, the 
flocks are the prey of their natural foes. 
Vines may be planted, but, if neglected, they 
are seized by insects or choked by thorny 
growths. To fulfill the first command of 
God — to replenish the earth and subdue it — 
the seas must be diked, the swamps drained, 



Working to Avoid Work 99 

the rivers bridged, the forests cultivated, the 
mountains honeycombed, the streets solidi- 
fied, the seas and lands wired, and, propelled 
by power, palaces must float over the seas 
and roll over the land. Our bodies must be 
subordinated, healed and strengthened; our 
souls educated and exalted, and I suppose 
that this world will never be ripe and good 
until the principles, the laws and the King 
of Heaven are come. 

We sometimes observe that the peoples 
more nearly under the sun have less neces- 
sity and consequently do less. They are not 
forced to undertake any great thing; there- 
fore, they neglect all great things. It is sad 
to reflect that were we similarly situated for 
a few generations, we would learn to do no 
more nearly under the sun have less neces- 
I will mention next. The magnificent struc- 
tures that mark our civilization would soon 
fall into disuse and decay; the mechanical 
appliances made and used by ourselves would 
fall from our hands ; decay and debris would 
spread all over our fair continent; our un- 
covered heads would go to savage seed, and 
heathenism would clothe us in rags, feathers 
and paint 



100 Human Occupation* 

This would happen to our people under 
tropical conditions, were it not for the com- 
manding presence and uplifting power of 
God and His Word. This power of itself 
might save us, for it will lift up the savage 
tomorrow. But in addition to it we are 
stimulated by nature. If we do not rise to 
greatness, the wind, the rain, the frost, the 
winters, the summers, the lightning and the 
earthquake, all become a fast falling scourge 
which all but compels us. Men may refuse to 
work, they may escape work even in our 
time and place, but the cycle of seasons is 
not once performed until they begin, with 
tears, to pay the awful price. 

Backing out of the realities of this life is 
like backing out of the realities of war — 
there is more to dread behind than there is 
in front. Or it is like returning by swim- 
ming, having gone to sea in a Pacific pal- 
ace. We are not here by choice of ours, 
nor is there any illuminated coast behind. 
We are on the sea of life, the most awfully 
real thing we know. The body may return 
to the dust whence it came but for the real 
man, the soul, there is no place to which to 
return. Yesterday has been lived and is of 



Working to Avoid Work 101 

the past forever. Man may say he will not 
enter upon tomorrow, but resolution cannot 
prevent his entering upon tomorrow when 
it comes any more than it could prevent his 
falling from the zenith were he dropped. We 
may turn to look back, but we forever pass 
on and on through life into other life, the 
sum of which constitutes everlasting life. 
Against all progress we may rebel, but rebels 
pass on without consideration. 

If we have considered the stern reality 
and necessity of work, we wish now to re- 
mark that the necessity of work is one of 
man's chief blessings. It not only keeps the 
soul from deterioration; it gives it most 
profitable employment. This world was cre- 
ated to educate and employ man. It is not 
his permanent abode. We are all created to 
occupy Heaven. God could have created us 
in Heaven and could have given us our 
school days there, but for that men were not 
fitted. They might have fallen or rebelled 
in the very presence of God, profaning that 
holy estate and giving origin to endless evils 
in Heaven. Man must be tried, educated 
and qualified for entrance there. For this, 
earth was created as man's place of proba- 



102 Human Occupation 

tion. His creation was in great honor and 
above reproach, but he fell, he rebelled, he 
defied God and His government. He has 
shown himself not ready for Heaven, but be- 
fore he enters there he must show forth 
both his readiness and his willingness. For 
this purpose he is in this world — the world 
created for his accommodation while in pro- 
bation. And for this end the world seems 
most admirably adapted. Beauty is here, 
sublimity is here, obstacles, dangers, and 
disasters are here. It is a mighty physical 
world. And, since this is the arena of soul 
struggles and of the contentions of spiritual 
kingdoms, it is also a mighty spiritual 
world. The physical is a great reality and 
the spiritual is no less a great reality. The 
two are mingled in every human life, mak- 
ing this world, of all worlds of which we 
have any knowledge, the one pre-eminently 
adapted for the probation of man. 

Better than any other world could, it se- 
cures our physical development. It is a world 
of work, and being one of grace and educa- 
tion, it is one of true culture. Even the 
horse meets his most magnificent type where 
he receives both work and training. If we 



Working to Avoid Work 103 

are to look for man at his greatest in this 
world, we must, of course, look for the man 
that descends from a line made noble by 
work and the various means of God-like cul- 
ture. 

Do not let it be thought that the physical 
world alone could secure human nobility. 
If it could, one might possibly undergo de- 
velopment in Hell. Nor is it at all certain 
that freedom from the material and the 
prevalence of the spiritual only would be as 
good for us as we have. Were it so, we 
would naturally expect to meet the nobility 
of the world in the tropics, reclining in 
shade, cushioned on moss, ready sheltered 
and amply fed. Or rather we might expect 
that, were a paradise of ease the safest and 
best place for man and man's development, 
we would still find the race in the original 
Eden; multiplied to millions and templed 
under the dome of bliss. 

But not so. When the flaming angel of 
God led man and his humiliated mate from 
paradise profaned into this world of work 
and realities, he led them from that which 
was good into that which was better, from 
that which was safe to that which was safer. 



10-i Human Occupation 

Eden and Heaven are good places for man 
when man is qualified for them; but the 
world that makes man rise to true nobility 
is the world God has built for that purpose 
only — the terra firma beneath our feet. Even 
this world is not all one. It is divided and 
subdivided. Some are surrounded with opu- 
lence and ease., while others are under pres- 
sure of circumstances ; and as a rule we find, 
even today, that the truest and best of earth 
and most highly useful, rise from the ward 
in which men have contact with necessity, 
and the means of culture as well. It was 
these conditions that wrought in the Irish 
and Scotch such undying qualities of great- 
ness, which made world conquerors of the 
American pioneers and which today, or 
rather yesterday, caused the regeneration of 
Japan. 

Man is placed in a world where he is not 
only commanded to conquer, but where he 
must conquer or be conquered. When God 
turned man out of Eden, he introduced him 
into a world of thorns and thistles, swamps 
and forests, mountains and valleys, broad 
s and wild lands. I: was filled with hun- 
gry beasts and savage monsters of the deep, 



Working to Avoid Work 105 

but man was made king and commanded to 
conquer. What we call the progress of the 
world has, so far, simply been man's acts of 
compliance with this original command. If 
criticism on the long record of man is to be 
made, it is that man has endeavored to con- 
vert this world into one of profit, rather than 
into one of perfection. His motive has been 
to gain, rather than to produce. If he has 
partially subdued the earth, he has first 
sought to possess it. All of which arises 
from man's misconception of his mission 
here, namely, to so alter the earth that it 
may become his place of development. It is 
by his endeavor to carry out this program 
that man will ever become great. Those 
that wrestle with the sea become sea masters, 
and those that never rest until they have 
subdued the earth, become world masters. 

Even in this world God cannot make a 
man unless that man will work. His com- 
mand to us is that we be strong, full of 
faith and of a good courage. Without these 
qualities, men cannot be advanced. No man 
can become a seaman unless he will brave 
the sea; no man can become a warrior un- 
less he dares to take the field; no man be- 



106 Human Occupation 

comes a scholar unless he loves the courts 
and corridors of learning; no man partakes 
of the realities of high Heaven unless he, 
by courage and industry, joins the ranks of 
the militant Kingdom here and now. In war 
or commerce, literature or religion, all the 
great conquerors have been men and women 
who dared to undertake things. They have 
not drawn back for safety or for ease, but 
have braved the work of life though beset 
by lions and confronted by mountains. 

The man that shirks and falters is to be 
pitied, rather than despised, for in reality 
his main lack is faith. He gains nothing by 
fear, but this he knows. Maybe he has tried 
heroic labor and fared no better, and has 
resigned himself to the world to get through 
it as easily as he can. He might as well, he 
believes, for by avoiding work, he succeeds 
as well as he does by doing work. Possibly 
so, but, if so, it is but another way of saying 
he never succeeded at all, by working or by 
not working, for, of couxse, no one suc- 
ceeds without work. 

To succeed in life, more than anything 
else, men need faith. They can make friends, 
they can make money, they can make prog- 



Working to Avoid Work 107 

ress if only they have faith. The coopera- 
tion of God is worth more than a mint of 
money or a host of friends. And, with that 
cooperation, the money and the friends are 
likely to come. Young men are heard to 
say, If they only had a promoter, they 
would do thus and so. They would secure 
and hold such a position, or they would be 
thus appointed, or favored, or advanced. But 
let it be plainly and most emphatically un- 
derstood that God can give the advance- 
ment and the uplift, and He only can sus- 
tain in the coveted position. Do not expect 
much from the arm of flesh; it is weak, or 
concerned with itself, or with other friends. 
Even if you are to secure the help of that 
arm, first get God to help you to secure the 
human help you desire. If there is no place 
open for you God only can open a place. If 
no one wants you, God can make some one 
want you. If there is no position for you to 
fill He can create a position. He can raise 
a throne in a desert, or clear estates where 
only mountains crowd the earth. He can 
raise up new islands from beneath the sea, 
or, better still, he can so exalt your wisdom 
that others will apply to you, and you will 
become a giver, not an asker. 



108 Human Occupation 

Men have ample reason to distrust them- 
selves and their own ability, but they have 
no room to doubt the ability of God, much 
less his willingness. The Word that has 
been found forever true and has never yet 
failed the human race still stands and is 
even in your hand. It has made anew mil- 
lions of men. It has transformed the low- 
est fallen, it has uplifted the faintest of 
heart, it has given them culture and power, 
because it is the conqueror of sin. Africa 
was conquered by a timid young man who 
had faith in God; India was enlightened by 
another, and America was discovered by an- 
other. 

In fact, men are to conquer by faith, not 
by hard blows or loud words. God's heart 
bleeds at the sight of men struggling hard 
and long and alone in this world. With 
all their power they try and try again, but 
with the power of God they try not once. He 
who is able to help and stands ready to 
help and has offered His services is not so 
much as invited to lay hold. Man will carry 
his own responsibility; he will do his own 
work; he will make the world comply. In 
the strife he breaks down both body and 



Working to Avoid Work 109 

spirit. He carries on the battle long, but 
with what pitiable results! All is friction, 
strife, anxiety, debt, disaster and too often 
final death. 

On the contrary it has been true in all 
ages that God can make Himself absolutely 
master in this world. Whom He will He 
can help ; and He will help those who appro- 
priately call upon Him. It is not the mis- 
sion of this chapter to delineate the condi- 
tions and measures of success. It is rather 
to be of encouragement to those who are 
faint. Do not allow faith in God to fail. 
For as the sun shines, God lives, and is in 
power. If He lives, He lives to His own 
glory. He cannot live to His own glory un- 
less He is willing to help His own creatures 
who call upon Him in sincerity and in truth. 
He vows it Himself that He is no respecter 
of persons, but is faithful, just and forever 
the same. He is man's present and eternal 
salvation and his every-day help. 

It is also absolutely fatal to man to lose 
faith in himself. To have no confidence in 
self is neither natural nor becoming to man. 
No one is created that way. The child with 
that state of mind was never known. In his 



110 Human Occupation 

baby years he rises from the fall determined 
to try again. He has fallen, he has been 
hurt, he has been refused more often than 
he has seen the sun ; but again he rises, again 
he calms his feelings and again he raises his 
petition to the highest authority he knows. 
For a child to give up, retire, give over the 
desire for the out-of-door world, close down 
his clamor for the sunlight, and remain pros- 
trate because he has been denied, is to be- 
come enfeebled, fail and die. 

Nor is such conduct less fatal to man ma- 
ture. The world in which he finds himself 
is literally dreadful unless man is at his 
best. The very face of nature is not only 
vast, but most formidable. The human fam- 
ily are as much his enemies as his friends. 
Some comfort and encourage, to be sure, but 
many rob, cut down and displace. Many 
who know this race of ours and what is in 
man, report that for an unsuspecting, inof- 
fensive youth to go to his life's business in 
this world is as for a sheep to go forth 
among wolves. It is also reported that 
many who appear to be sheep are but wolves 
arrayed in sheep's clothing. The world is 
not what it at first appears. Where man 



Working to Avoid Work m 

preponderates and the race is congested, the 
world wears whitewash, overlaid with gilt 
and gewgaws, while underneath it is full of 
dead men's bones. 

Men that had an honest parentage, and 
began their education among the righteous, 
find this world a snare, a deception, a web 
from which they cannot extricate them- 
selves, having fallen into it. Finding it dis- 
honest, deceitful, unreliable, hard to contend 
with in their own strength, and impossible 
to overcome, they get many a fall to their 
sorrow. It is probable, however, that man 
never lost hope or success on account of the 
faults of others only. It is the lack of mor- 
ality within the heart that drops a man be- 
low his station. If he forsakes the path of 
rectitude, if he drops the hand of his Cre- 
ator, if he embraces unseemly pleasures, and 
tastes the forbidden fruit, he falls. He may 
by grace recover, but if he offends again, 
he falls again, and again. And while I be- 
lieve the helping hand is ever out and his 
recovery might be complete at any time he 
raises the look of desire, it is such repeated 
falling that reduces a man little by little un- 
til finally hope can rise no more. 

8 



112 Human Occupation 

Of all men in this world, the one most to 
be pitied is the man who has lost hope in 
God and in himself. He may also lose con- 
fidence in the human race. This state of 
things is subjective. It is what has been 
named "Hell upon earth/' and the road 
leading thereto is down the valley of sin. 
Lest men should fall into a state of hope- 
lessness, void of aspiration, they should 
guard well the state of their own hearts, for 
out of the heart are the issues of life. 

The consequences of inactivity and self- 
surrender to the forces of the natural world, 
the flesh or the devil, are unspeakably bad. 
To refuse to work is to refuse to progress. 
I have observed boys contending, some of 
them for an education, some of them against 
it. From their infancy they rise together 
so far as unaided nature impels them, but 
when they have reached the platform on 
which volition and personal choice play 
their part, their real qualities begin to stool. 
Some, with face uplifted and with the 
earnestness of an angel, mount higher and 
higher the path of learning until they reach 
and walk at large upon the lofty plain of all 
but glorified wisdom. While others do not 



Working to Avoid Work 113 

so. Their eyes begin to wander from the 
goal, to search after secret sins, dens of 
devils, haunts of hell. When the sun is high 
and their teachers hold control, they appear 
normal, and mingle with the pure in heart; 
but when the earth has found her shadow 
and the city is enveloped in night, then they 
prowl in secrecy to the dives that work their 
ruin. They emerge again at dawn and re- 
turn for a time to the scenes of decency and 
progress; but by repeated debauches they 
have grieved away God's Spirit, their guard- 
ian angel and their spiritual teacher. The 
halls of learning now to them look dark 
and distasteful; their faults and failures 
stare them in the face ; the Spirit to save and 
uplift is gone, and one day, just as they hesi- 
tate for a final decision between rectitude and 
ruin, they remember their failures and for- 
sake forever the ways that point to progress 
and lead to life. 

Such vipers as attack the youth bleed men 
to death. We see men going forth in a 
worldly work, an avocation of their own 
choice. Necessity, that God-given minister 
to us all, has compelled them to do some- 
thing. They have the pity of Heaven and 



114 Human Occupation 

possibly also by merit of their own they 
strike off a few years of commendable work, 
netting what they call success. The clamor- 
ings of the flesh get the ascendancy and they 
dive nightly into the mire of sin. With 
licentiousness they mix tippling, with tip- 
pling gambling, with gambling the frag- 
ments of business hours, and with it all, the 
sweepings of the last gold from their vaults, 
and the last morality from the heart. From 
some long debauch they return to find the 
key turned on themselves and some one else 
serving the public in the place of business 
that once was theirs. 

It is not until then that a poor member of 
our mortal race realizes that his sins have 
dogged him down. He turns from the 
door of business to sound the public, only 
to find that they can get along well with- 
out him. They ignore his fall and despise 
his condition. He quits the hollow scenes 
and sounds of commerce to seek again 
that place which once was home, but 
which latterly has been but a prison for 
his wife and his child and an unavail- 
ing restraint to himself. Two suns have 
set since he entered there, nor has step 



Working to Avoid Work 115 

or voice been heard within save those of the 
grieving, starving occupants. His entrance 
this time is not to condemn, but to confess. 
The food and paternal succor so long waited 
for he has not brought. He can only con- 
fess to an outraged wife and a neglected 
child the folly, fraud and failure of his 
ways. The narration of such scenes is not 
neglected by the daily press. It may be left 
to it any day in the year and w T herever the 
sun shines to elaborate the conclusions, 
whether of perfidious crime irrevocable, or 
a renewal of embraces and pledges, with 
tears and new resolves. It is sufficient to 
say that most men who have no spirit have 
by their own folly grieved the Spirit away; 
who have no heart have had their heart bled 
and hardened by experiences more real than 
are here described. If man finds himself cast 
forth from society and deprived of God's fa- 
voring face, himself but an heap and his life 
all in ruins, there is a cause. It may not be 
far to find. It may not be farther removed 
than the third or fourth generation, or it 
most likely craunched within the desolations 
of his own conduct. Sin in the heart is like 
a lion at large in the senate of the saints or 



116 Human Occupation 

the tented resort of summer; it soon tears 
all to death and leaves the enclosure in 
ruins. "Humble yourselves therefore under 
the mighty hand of God that He may exalt 
you in due time." "Be sober; be vigilant; 
because your adversary, the devil, as a roar- 
ing lion, walketh about seeking whom he 
may devour." "And I say unto you, my 
friends, be not afraid of them that kill the 
body and after that have no more that they 
can do, but I will forewarn you whom ye 
shall fear: fear him which, after he hath 
killed, hath power to cast both soul and body 
into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him." 

Man's development is not to be compared 
with that of other creations. God's concept 
tion of a man is an erect biped with func- 
tions but a little lower than those of the an- 
gels, and with structure of spirit akin to 
God. His origin is not lowly, nor his orig- 
inal endowments mean. Even in his remote 
creation he was a companion of God, en- 
trusted with the paradise of earth. Male 
and female created He them, mutually de- 
pendent, but highly favored, and both inno- 
cence and sublimity plumed their crowns. 
If they walked in paradise they were veiled 
in light and all their paths were peace. 



Working to Avoid Work 117 

If man finds himself depraved, it is owing 
to racial and personal indulgence in by and 
forbidden ways. It is because he has sought 
the dark depths with absence from God. It 
is because he preferred to wallow in mire 
rather than to bathe in light. The erosion 
of sin on the members of man is something 
appalling, though real. It has gullied his 
breast and carried away his flesh; it has 
washed his muscles and rotted his bones; it 
has shattered his teeth and gaunted his jaws ; 
it has washed away his eyes and left them 
deep-sunken and small in their sockets; it 
has racked his frame, wrinkled his skin, 
borne down his soul and his appearance; it 
has distorted his hair and flooded his beard 
with debris, and most of all it has borne far 
away the crown of his original manhood. 
If he is not left at last in a dilapidated and 
lifeless heap, it is only because of the mer- 
ciful ministrations from above. For it is 
God's chief care to nurse man back to life, 
and the mission of His Son was to seek and 
to save that which was lost. 

Man's cooperation must be had in his 
own redemption, or else, by force, the un- 
clean thing must be carried into the king- 



US HVMAN JCCUPATION 

dom of Heaven. Unless man will arise from 
his far-off ruin and come back to his God 
when God's Spirit moves and helps him, he 
but intensifies his own sufferings and draws 
out his own woe. He evades the supreme 
business of life, that of re-establishment in 
God. He suffers the ruins of his premises 
to pile up higher. He sleeps under the sun 
and sins under the stars. He corrects noth- 
ing but his family, his neighbors, the state 
and the universe outside himself. All sem- 
blance of comfort about him has given place 
to dilapidated hovels with cast down and 
overgrown fences, empty larders with most 
aggravated resources. Hunger and cold grin 
through the unchinked walls and filth has 
come up against him to cover all that he has. 
He suffers their pangs, but the wails and 
entreaties of his children have long been 
lost on his ear. If his wife sighs for bread 
or death, her only comfort is that Heaven 
weeps with her. 

Nature is applied to the man. He suf- 
fers he groans, he cries out for the hills to 
fall upon him, or for hell to open and receive 
him out of sight Yet he rebels against 
God ana w:[\ not rise. If all is taken fron? 



Working to Avoid Work 119 

him he suffers it; if all comes against 
him he suffers that. God entreats him to 
repent and be forgiven; to arise and be a 
worker for righteousness in the world. His 
persistent refusal amounts to simply this: 
that for himself he will take everlasting mis- 
ery and destruction for his portion ; that his 
family may go as vagabonds in this world 
and fare as they can in the next; that his 
neighbors are no concern to him, though 
they may be sucked down with him into the 
vortex of unconditional ruin; that the par- 
ents who gave him birth, baptism and a be- 
ginning in the world may go down to their 
graves grieved and dishonored at his folly, 
and that the affairs and interests of the state 
may suffer overthrow by arms, fire or flood, 
or may grade themselves whether they will. 
He resents the overtures of Heaven in his 
behalf and says that rather than be progres- 
sive he will hold back if it costs him his all. 
Now, it has in all ages been as plain to be 
seen on earth as in Heaven that a life of re- 
sistance, rebellion and refusal to act entails 
only remorse and misery forever. Whereas 
joy and gladness spring from activity, obe- 
dience and a life that projects becoming 



120 Human Occupation 

plans in the interests of Heaven and hu- 
manity. Such a life will meet with great 
labor, to be sure, but just in proportion as 
its great labors are discharged aright will 
that soul grow thereby, and the consequences 
of this course are only blessings perpetual. 
Moreover, should the labors of a righteous 
life prove apparently insurmountable, there 
is One whose touch melts the winters, cuts 
open the seas and overturns the mountains. 
His cooperation may be secured in any 
righteous undertaking. In fact, the work, 
if it be great, is most likely first to begin 
with Him, if not, it might better have done 
so ; and in that case man's work is also His 
work. Man finds himself in cooperation 
with the Almighty, the King and Creator of 
the universe who knows no impossibilities, 
and in keeping with whose consummate 
plans all things meet success. 



V 

WORKING TO NO EFFECT 

In the human composition there is not an 
organ nor a member, not a part nor an ap- 
pointment, but is made under the most exact 
care of the Almighty. The inwalled organs 
of the interior, the outposted organs of 
sense, the systems for circulation and sensa- 
tion, the osseous frame that gives all else 
position, the system of muscles that secures 
symmetry and aids action, all have their 
functions as originally handed down. What 
is superfluous is not apparent to man, nor is 
it any part of his physical constitution. Is 
man a machine? If we so regard him, we 
certainly find him set forth in great perfec- 
tion. 

Man is not only elaborated with great 
economy, he is in all his parts given amaz- 
ing endurance. The feet, his physical sup- 
port, would carry him many times around 
and all over the globe. His two hands 
would, in a life time, if advantageously ap- 
121 



122 Human Occupation 

plied, reduce forests to ashes and mountains 
to ruined heaps. With one pair of eyes man 
can read the books of many libraries, the 
current events of his own age, view a large 
part of this world and the fiery appearance 
of a thousand worlds besides. If man is 
himself fully aroused, devoted to the busine s s 
of life and inspired of God to know his abil- 
ity and his responsibility, he moves v 
power and he moves to conquer. Oh, that 
men might know the power at their com- 
mand! But they seldom know either the 
power with which they are created, or the 
power offered from above. Wisdom cries 
without and would enter as air a vacuum. 
Spirit divine is promised, but man admits 
it not God would hand over power with 
the liberality with which He has created con- 
tinents and seas, but men neither ask it nor 
prove themselves worthy of its possession. 
The result too often is that mortal man goes 
to life's work empty handed and alone. 

A condition of this kind, a man in the 
midst of life without his God, is like a bird 
without wings or a man without his angel. 
Rivers may be bridged or crossed dry shod ; 
deserts may be traversed, and the forests 



Working to No Effect 123 

primeval penetrated, if only man has leader- 
ship. Between man and his own future 
there is an incalculable wall, invisible, but 
real. It has no solidity, yet it cannot be pen- 
etrated. It has no height, yet it never has 
been scaled. Beyond that wall no one sees, 
no one knows. There, just beyond today, 
may yawn the abyss, called death ; there may 
tower the condition called fortune; there 
may await each mundane traveler life's path, 
obscured and tortuous, under clouds and 
through blood, no eye of flesh has seen, no 
human being knows. There is but one eye 
that sees the vast outlying future. It looks 
down, not from the summit of the wall, but 
from the apex of creation. There is but one 
Being who knows man's future. He not 
only knows it, He controls it. At His com- 
mand it rises or falls, has existence, or on 
His breath is blown away like the mist of 
the morning. Yet men undertake their own 
future single-handed and alone. That they 
have done so in the past is evidenced by the 
wrecks along the path of time. Only those 
failures that are most conspicuous are re- 
corded by history, yet of these the records 
are ever full — kings in office and in calam- 



124 Human Occupation 

ity, clothed with power, but unworthy of it, 
exalted by pedigree, but cast down by con- 
duct. With social elevation a man can see 
no farther than from mediocrity. God, who 
is no respecter of persons, suffers to decline 
the great or the small if they hazard life 
alone. That He would be their security is 
already promised. The failures of men are 
accounted for by their self-made choices and 
their self-determined courses. 

In His infinite goodness God regards us 
as His children and over all He has a pater- 
nal care. He has not only placed us in a 
world of possibilities, but He designs for 
each of us a nobility and God-likeness wor- 
thy of the members of His household. To 
so much as presume that we can choose for 
ourselves avenues more delectable and re- 
sults more transcendent than God has made 
choice of for us, is.the uttermost folly. If we 
would only believe it, He not only makes us 
princes and conquerors and members of the 
universal nobility, with the gentleness and 
demeanor of angels, but He comes to our 
succor to maintain us as we expatiate upon 
that highway to which He has elevated us. 

More than anything else it would indi- 



Working to No Effect 125 

cate a lack of faith when we see officers of 
the law, teachers and even ministers of the 
Gospel and public reformers, trusting not to 
God, but to ways of their own choosing. 
They have chosen a good work, but if they 
go forth in their own strength, following 
self-chosen ways, they too, will be found 
among the wreckage along the way. He 
ever pities their case, but cannot improve it, 
as it has never been committed to the care 
of the King. History has her own story, 
simply revealing the Almighty's verdict on 
those who have in the past acted upon the 
stage of life. Since man has been here he 
has been in action. Strife and contention 
have ever kept the world bleeding and her 
smoke rising. The fury of the contest aug- 
ments and diminishes, but never subsides. 
No race or class of men has been exempt 
from the struggle. By choice or necessity, 
all have been plunged into the fight. The 
profane record reveals only high-handed 
confusion, but History has a philosophy. 
Through its seething toils may be seen some 
cause and effect, life's disaster and victory, 
and the reason for both. 

There is a sense in which God is the 



126 Human Occupation 

Father of us all, while in another sense, He 
owns only those who own Him. Reading 
history without knowing its philosophy, the 
student sees war, indiscriminate and almost 
continuous. A nation has no sooner cut all 
others down and obtained unobstructed su- 
premacy than a thousand foes within and 
without thrust forth their masked heads and 
the world conqueror is herself cut down. 
The next power to rise spreads another layer 
of carnage over the earth, then falls and ex- 
pires among the bones of the nations gone 
before. No nation has enjoyed uninterrupt- 
ed glory; not one has made her history and 
closed up her annals, but her successes and 
her rebuffs have alternated like the forth- 
flowing and receding of the tide. The nov- 
ice has wondered at this bloody repetition 
and has called upon history to utter her 
teachings. 

A few observations should here be made 
on the past before we contemplate the condi- 
tion of our own success or failure on the 
stage of time. 

The true and only Master of the universe 
has been on neither side in most of the wars 
of the world. The parties to the contest 



Working to No Effect 127 

have not invoked God's presence, nor have 
they had any consistent knowledge of God, 
His motive or His plans. At most times 
and in most wars the selfish and personal 
ambitions of kings and crowned heads have 
marshalled the affairs of the world. God 
looked on, pitied their ignorance, and regret- 
ted their willfulness, but there was no ap- 
proach to the situation. No one was right, 
or deserving of God's cooperation. No one 
was equipped with a knowledge of God's 
purposes, or knew of His plans. God could 
there do no mighty work, because no one 
believed or understood Him. To rule one 
side down and the other into ascendency was 
no gain to Heaven or earth, to God or to 
man. Mere suffering will sometimes open 
man's understanding and let God in. 
Through man's failures and pain God has 
often been able to introduce knowledge. Lit- 
tle else was gained. 

In such history making there is almost 
no progress. God is not conspicuously pres- 
ent and nothing is gained to the world. But 
when God is admittedly present on one side 
or both, there is neither confusion nor doubt. 
Every stroke means progress and has its 



128 Human Occupation 

lesson. The lesson is for all; the progress 
is for the people of God. For more than 
four thousand years God has had a chosen, 
or an adopted people, on the earth. The 
stream sprang with Abraham and has al- 
most world wide expansion to-day in the 
body (the acknowledged people of God) 
known as the Christian community. To His 
troth with that people God has been exactly 
faithful. When they have sinned He has 
never failed to correct; when they have 
obeyed and progressed He has always led 
them to victory; when right they have al- 
ways conquered and conquer still. To them 
God has given the victory, whether in the 
fiery furnace or on the bosom of the sea ; in- 
dividually or collectively. The faithful He 
has never failed, and His promise is that 
such He will never fail to lead. 

To examine more minutely and to search 
more modern times, we see a single man of 
God, opposed by all his kin and countrymen, 
going forth into an hostile continent and 
conquering India for his God. With the 
smallest beginnings he projected in that 
most unlikely place a cause that has never 
fallen tc the ground. We see Livingston 



Working to No Effect 129 

studying at the loom, crossing the sea for 
the darkest of continents, flying the banner 
of Heaven, planting that standard in the 
heart of Africa, and finally dying on his 
knees at the foot of the cross. But the 
standard there planted stands to-day; and 
the continent by him uncovered is no longer 
Africa, but the frontier of Europe. We see 
a group of American school boys bringing 
down Heaven by their prayers and sending 
forth Heaven's messengers and kingdom 
into the four quarters of all the earth. In 
consequence the islands of the seas clap 
their hands and the gratified people of two 
worlds call them blessed. Not that these 
men bore arms, or fame, or wealth, but the 
cross of Christ and the cause that was close 
to God's heart. Though it arose from hum- 
ble beginnings, it was built on eternal foun- 
dations, under the approval of Heaven and 
will forever stand. 

History might be called upon to account 
for America and her stupendous civilization 
here standing after less than three centuries 
of growth. America was born of Provi- 
dence and prayer ; and has so far been nour- 
ished and maintained by the same angelic 



130 Human Occupation 

guardians. History may be called upon to 
account for the rejuvenation of the whole 
earth — the earth that two thousand years 
ago was dying in every branch and in every 
root. It too came of prayer and of Provi- 
dence. The life that was then introduced 
by the cooperation of God with our mortal 
race, though once cradled by a single hand, 
has sprung up and gone forth into all quar- 
ters of the globe. No such life has been 
known in the being of man save such as we 
find coursing in the veins of God's people 
ever since and even before this time. The 
people of God make a history that no other 
people make. What they do God never 
overthrows. He has no need to overthrow 
their work; it was done in cooperation with 
Him; it meets His approval and stands 
while the world does, if not forever. 

That other people obtain no such results; 
that their work no sooner rises than it falls 
to the ground, is seen by every page of his- 
tory. This world has been, by the records 
of man, some six thousand years in build- 
ing and it is more filled with ashes of em- 
pires forever gone than with empires born 
to live. While on all sides people have built 



Working to No Effect 131 

up their empires and have seen them fall, 
God and His people have built up but one 
Kingdom. From its early origin it has ever 
augmented and is alive to-day. Its end is 
not yet, nor ever shall be. It will prove to 
be eternal; and every labor of man which 
merges into this Kingdom and its interests 
will prove to be eternal. A cup of cold 
water given to a wayfarer, if given in God's 
behalf, will be forever remembered and its 
beneficent results will forever stand. Men 
who work against God, or work without 
God, work ultimately to no effect. 

This, also, being referred to History and 
Revelation, reasons why, without God, 
man's work has so little permanence, should 
be most earnestly considered. Every youth 
that contemplates a future, every man who 
is building a life, every statesman who is 
building personal or public interests, every 
person on this great but unavoidable plat- 
form of life should deeply, and once for all 
consider these manifest reasons. They are 
three, and are both universal and eternal. 
Without their observance man will accom- 
plish very little, or what he does perform 
will have to be taken down and rebuilt. In 



132 Human Occupation 

either case he will be working to no effect, 
which is wrong. 

I. The first one is that without God man 
is naturally full of fear, whereas, with 
God's love in the heart, all fear is cast out. 
"Perfect love casteth out fear." The young 
lady, timid, modest, and ineffective without 
God becomes the young lady modest, cour- 
ageous and astonishingly effective with 
Him. The man who can not without God 
utter one unbroken sentence before the pub- 
lic, can, when filled with the Holy Ghost, 
hold thousands spellbound for hours. With 
God, people are not afraid to go far from 
home, to invest large amounts of money, to 
risk their lives, to encounter opposition, or, 
if need be, to die. 

Of course, there are, back of this fearless- 
ness, reasons, well founded and abundant. 
There is nothing to fear in death since to 
die is gain. They need not fear to make 
conquest for "He it is that goeth before 
them." They need have no fear of temporal 
loss, for the God that gives can take away 
and give again at His own good pleasure, 
and what they have need of He will always 
provide. They have nothing to fear if they 



Working to No Effect 133 

have God favoring them, for richer than 
mints of pure gold are His promises to the 
effect that if they abide in Him and His 
words abide in them they may ask what they 
will and it shall be done unto them. For 
four thousand years the most courageous 
and successful of men have relied upon 
God's assurances and never yet have they 
found them unreliable or untrue. 

This is the most marvelous fact known to 
man that between his God and himself there 
is exchange of thought, sympathy and love ; 
that there is cooperation of plan and action. 
Man has not the station of a servant, but 
that of a friend, a brother, a child. He is 
not working for God, he is working with 
God. He is planning with God. He often 
proposes and God disposes. It is a marvel- 
ous cooperative relationship that clothes 
man with power, and qualifies him for suc- 
cess. And the climax of this glorious plan 
is in the fact that it works. In its applica- 
tion there is no hazard. God is unfailing 
and forever true. 

II. Man's operations are full of confu- 
sion. When men construct their plans, they 
frame them in the interest of God and hu- 



134 Human Occupation 

manity, or else, with characteristic alacrity, 
they turn all things to a personal account. 
If the former, their plans may be sustained, 
and, blessed of God, their earthly efforts will 
terminate in a high order of success; but 
when mere personal desire or selfish ambi- 
tion prompts the operations of man it is that 
times are altered, circumstances change, de- 
sires are thwarted, disaster threatens all 
and, filled with confusion, and bereft of a 
leader, man turns back or sinks down under 
the pressure of his own creations. One can- 
not always struggle against odds unless he 
struggles for, and is sustained by, his God. 
The history of war reveals man in confusion 
or in flight unless he has God with him ; 
the history of business exposes man's weak- 
ness when left alone; and the history of 
Christianity shows no progress, but only 
backsliding, confusion, defeat, and degrada- 
tion, except when God is exalted in the 
church and crowned King in the hearts of 
her constituents. 

To look in review over the history of the 
race we see little else than confusion and 
fruitless struggle except where the current 
of God's Kingdom flows. The rising and 



Working to No Effect 135 

falling of empires is almost as unceasing and 
unprogressive as the rising and falling of 
the ocean waves. History has a sound of 
war but not of progress; a commotion of 
events, but little progression until the 
searching eye rests where the uplifted torch 
of the Heavensent Captain rises above the 
storm. There the foot of man finds a rock 
at rest; there chaos comes to order; there 
progress begins and certainty obtains; then 
and there and thenceforward the blood that 
has been shed, if shed in His name, has bap- 
tized the world and marked the current of 
human progress. 

The main lesson of history, this deep im- 
print of the past, should aid man to seize 
the advantage of his own time. Such phil- 
osophy, so wrought out, holds true to-day. 
It is servant and would be lord of all men. 
By its teachings we are warned to profit, but 
uniformity of action has not obtained. 
Men, with two stars, Sacred History and 
Divine Law, to lead the way and light the 
night, lose sight of both. Like wanderers 
in a forest, they find only confusion ; or, like 
tossed mariners at sea, they strike only 
rocks. 



136 Human Occupation 

III. Again, men are weak and fail with- 
out God because they have God to oppose 
them. God never opposes His own people 
when they are right. "Whom He loves, He 
chastens/' or corrects, but after they are cor- 
rected they are stronger than before. Men 
who are going against God like plants that 
are going away from the light, do not pros- 
per. They receive reverse after reverse, nor 
do they recover from one until another is 
upon them. That men opposed to God for 
a time accumulate earthly possession and 
men of God appear to accumulate nothing 
can be no criterion whatever. Houses and 
lands with a clear title do not always repre- 
sent value. If rightly procured and rightly 
held, they are no detriment, but they are 
not so held except by the man in partnership 
with God. Owned and held in any way by 
any man, they are transient, soon to pass to 
someone else and are subject to transmittal 
at any moment. The man that sleeps to- 
night on mountainous down in a palace, may 
tomorrow night be glad of a retreat in a 
coal shed. However, letting it stand as it 
does in appearance that a man with no God 
has houses and acres, the man of God has 



Working to No Effect 137 

mansions and worlds. While the Godless 
man is threshing out an earthly fortune, the 
other man has been adopted as a child of 
the King of the universe. The former has 
an accumulation of chaff which must be 
tried by fire ; the possessions of the latter are 
more precious and abiding than a pyramid 
of pure gold filling the earth and piercing 
the stars. It is, perhaps, not profitable to 
call into comparison the possessions of men, 
but if such a thing should chance to be done, 
it should be done when the vision is good 
and the gates of eternity are open. 

We do not often see God coming forth 
and taking immediate part in the affairs of 
earth, personal or political. Unless condi- 
tions are bad, and the innocent are exposed 
to extreme loss, God refrains from laying 
His hand upon man and ordains that wheat 
and tares be left to grow together. But the 
long annals of history once open, we see 
kings hurled from their thrones, navies 
driven deep into the sea, armies cast down 
to death and individuals called to immedi- 
ate account,— all because God confronted 
them in their wrong doing. What a man is 
and has is known only after he has recorded 



138 Human Occupation 

his final will and has rendered his accounts 
to the Judge of the universe. When that 
is done we find the Godless man without a 
cent, without a future, without a hope, or a 
tolerable home. 

For conspicuous evidence that God's 
enemies go down in final defeat it is neces- 
sary to look no further than the crowned 
heads of Europe, both before and after Na- 
poleon. That by human genius and per- 
sistence they struggled to supremacy can 
not be denied ; but that their overthrow fol- 
lowed as night the day is also evident. 
Not one of those whose mission was self- 
appointed, and whose means of success were 
in his own hands but fell in dishonor cov- 
ered by the ruins of his own creation. The 
fall of rulers is more frequent than the fall 
of empires, but the record of historic man is 
one of violence, defiance and downfall, — 
crown after crown, throne after throne, dy- 
nasty after dynasty, empire after empire un- 
til the earth is heaped full of the debris of 
dead empires and the bones of their rulers. 

Of all those empires whose ruins now en- 
cumber the earth not one was founded on 
the principles of righteousness or had its 



Working to No Effect 139 

commission from God. Nor was its chief 
end to inaugurate, maintain or perpetuate 
the divine principles. They were conceived 
in fear, born on a field of blood, succored by 
selfishness, perpetuated for self interests, 
proved to be world plunderers and died un- 
der the direct thrust of God, or when they 
met in mortal combat some other blood 
lover who had greater might and more im- 
plements of war. It is owing to their rapac- 
ity that human gore has drenched the earth, 
and every land and every sea is a grave for 
the militant dead. 

Preeminently to the contrary has come 
forth the Kingdom of God. Its founder for- 
mulated his councils within the walls of 
Heaven, under the very throne of God. It 
was founded for a pronounced reason. The 
grounds for its existence are found in the 
needs of humanity. It was projected from 
the very bosom of compassion. On its 
throne was brought man's Savior and in it- 
self it" is man's everlasting security. Its 
King came not to be ministered unto, but 
to minister; not to subjugate the world, but 
to transform it; not to enslave man, but to 
save him. He laid hands of violence on no 



140 Human Occupation 

man nor suffered war in His own behalf. 
Never resorting to the force of the sword, 
or the power of the pen, or the persuasive- 
ness of His own oratory, He relied with 
reason upon the power of His own inoffen- 
sive Spirit. His is the Kingdom that never 
fell and never suffered at the hands of an 
enemy. While other kingdoms fell, His 
survived, and brings joy wherever the sun 
shines in the world to-day. His labors were 
abundant and they have never come short 
of productivity. 

Nor will the labors of others fail, when 
thus begun and thus carried forward. There 
remains no experiment to be made. During 
nearly two thousand years, occasional men 
have acted upon the divine injunctions 
that "without Me ye can do nothing", and 
that "if ye abide in Me and My words abide 
in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall 
be done unto you". They have reared their 
lives with the principles of the Bible; they 
have received plans inspired of God and 
they have carried them forward, not in their 
own interests, nor by their own strength, 
but in the name of the Most High and in 
the interest of God and humanity. The 



Working to No Effect 141 

labors of such men never die. The men 
themselves are the immortals of earth. They 
have enriched the world that knows them 
and to-day they sit down with distinction in 
Heaven. 

Not all men learn their opportunity, but 
all men are held responsible. When God 
stands ready to help a man, and when the 
world entreating help lies before him, a man 
is held responsible if he does not act and act 
wisely. We are told how to work, how to 
lay hold upon God for help; and how all 
our labors will come to naught if we do 
neither. Yet the prodigality of self used 
power is great beyond calculation. Men 
with millions are working to no effect be- 
cause out of harmony with God. They dis- 
play great activity but they reduce God's 
world to ruins. When they devastate the 
world, God and His people must again re- 
store and improve it. These misguided, or 
self guided people, prolong the agony of the 
earth and almost seem to defeat the deter- 
minations of God. But their power is never 
greater than their responsibility, nor is their 
punishment less. For all their defiance they 
are brought to account, and, when God's 



142 Human Occupation 

wishes are thwarted, man's sins are pun- 
ished. 

God's work in the world is of supreme 
importance. With it no other work or in- 
terests can bear comparison. As the starry 
heavens are higher and greater than the 
earth, so are His thoughts, His plans and 
His works higher than those of men. The 
castles and catacombs of the ants which are 
trodden under the foot of man, are to man's 
creations as man's interests are to God's. 
Created of the dust ourselves, to which we 
are destined to return, man's pretensions are 
at best but for a moment. A hundred gen- 
erations perish from the earth with all their 
works and wishes, yet God's plans ride on 
unchanged and unabated. Only those plans 
which are God's or are clustered about God 
and secure His succor, are entitled to per- 
manence or receive the Almighty considera- 
tion. All else is dissipated by the progress 
of divine events as the hoar frost by the on- 
rush of the majestic engine. 

Personally, unless you can plainly say 
that with all your might and mind your de- 
sires and plans are to labor together with 
God for the betterment of humanity and the 



Working to No Effect 143 

highest interest of the universe, you will do 
wisely to alter your plans and make more 
permanent your works. For unless your 
labors are with God, they are against Him, 
and with their defender, they will meet ul- 
timate defeat. In all capacities, men attain 
greatness in cooperation with God, but with- 
out Him men can achieve nothing; their 
most consummate plans and herculean ef- 
forts go down in a final collapse involving 
the fatality of families and sometimes of na- 
tions. 

In consideration of the fact that in this 
chapter we are considering the case of the 
man who works but secures little or no re- 
sults, let us briefly examine whether or not 
any Christians be found in this way. Of 
course, there are certain primary acts of any 
one who is a Christian that secure their own 
consequences, which are desirable beyond 
comprehension. Such are the request for 
and the gift of salvation in this world and 
security in the next. But two may be chil- 
dren and servants of God and one be profit- 
able in the extreme and the other be excep- 
tionally fruitless. One will carry through 

great and superhuman undertakings while 
10 



144 Human Occupation 

the other, always uncertain and vacillating, 
is not dependable for results of any kind, 
though dissatisfied with himself and pitied 
of God. Believing that most people who 
love God would love to be highly useful in 
His work, let the reasons be developed, why 
so many Christians spend their lives with 
so little results for the eternal welfare of 
man and the eternal glory of God. 

First I would suggest that it is because 
even the believer does not believe. To him 
God is distant, unreal and abstract. He reads 
what God did in the time of Christ and in 
the time of Moses, but he sees or hears noth- 
ing of God's activity in the universe to-day. 
He reads a great many passages in the Bible 
where God promises most solemnly to man, 
but the fulfillment of these promises is never 
called for and never seen. Because God is 
in no case apparent to him personally, he 
loses more and more ground, and regards 
God daily at a greater distance. So that 
neither God, nor His work, nor His Son, 
nor His Spirit are manifest or near the poor 
disbelieving believer; and, like a sprout of 
vegetation growing in the dark, he secures 
neither health nor fruition. The remedy 



Working to No Effect 145 

for the man whose Bible and whose God are 
unreal and different than they were in Bible 
times is to believe the Bible. Believe! Be- 
come a simple, obedient, trustful, very 
young, child of God. 

The next step toward greatness and a 
fruitful life in God and His world is to pro- 
pose a plan for your future activity. This 
plan should, if possible, or as much as pos- 
sible, come from God, who has use for you, 
knows what you can do and what the diffi- 
culties are that you will encounter ahead. 
Get your plan from Him. It is not in the 
least degree safe to get it in any other way. 
You can get it by the aid of the Bible and 
the ministrations of the blessed Holy Spirit. 
Be moved by the Spirit and be governed by 
the Bible. At first it may be extremely 
hard to comply with the demands of God. 
You will want to, or think you want to do 
so, but when you come to know what those 
demands are you will find it hard to com- 
ply. But do not refuse and turn away sor- 
rowing as did the rich young man, who, 
when he asked a plan of conduct, was told 
to sell all he had and give to the poor. When 
God says to set your affections on the things 



146 Human Occupation 

of a higher world, not of this one, comply by 
all means. When He says give, or go, or 
serve, comply, if it is like cutting off the 
right arm or casting away the organ of 
sight. 

Be very careful to obey the suggestions of 
the Holy Spirit; and if you are not capable 
of perceiving the suggestions of that gra- 
cious Spirit, do not be discouraged, but be- 
gin at once to seek to know Him. I remem- 
ber once going on the bosom of the blue 
waters with an expert fisherman, to observe 
and to catch the happy creatures of the 
lake. The expert charged himself with the 
management of the boat and of five lines; 
while I, a novice, undertook the manage- 
ment of a single line. I soon was convinced 
that although fish abounded in schools, ex- 
ulting on the surface and in the cool depths 
of the water, and that although my asso- 
ciate was drawing them forth constantly, I 
was not so much as able to detect the nib- 
bling of the fish at the distant hook. My 
associate, perceiving my dullness, suggested 
that I allow the line to pass over the end of 
the index finger, the most sensitive part to 
the evasive touch. Resorting to this, the 



Working to No Effect 147 

bite was perceptible, and by believing the 
faintest twitch to be a bite and acting on 
that little belief, I soon felt stronger 
twiches ; and as the foiled but deceptive cap- 
tive was brought nearer the boat, he not 
only pulled back with all his might but my 
faith was rewarded by occasionally seeing 
him, and at last all was realized when the 
fish was lifted into the boat. It was not 
until then that I was sure that any one could 
catch fish. 

This for simplicity, but it is ever so with 
the gracious Spirit of God. His presence 
is at first not strongly felt and His will is 
but dimly understood. But let me say it 
solemnly and to the praise of God that His 
impressions are always consistent and they 
grow stronger; so much so that I have felt 
Him take my hand in both of His, and, in a 
most kindly and solicitous manner, lead me 
by the place where it was not wise to enter. 
He leads, He warns, He forbids, He en- 
courages, He helps man on. In fact He is 
not only our comforter, He is our con- 
trolling spirit and guiding angel. Let it be 
repeated then, at all costs arrive at your plan 
in obedience to and dependence upon the 



148 Human Occupation 

Bible and the Holy Spirit; otherwise, you 
will be weak, vacillating, faithless and in- 
competent in the hour of impending trial. 

The next thing essential to your welfare 
and success is to carry forward your plan 
in faith. Only be strong and of good cour- 
age and God will bring it to pass. Do not 
allow yourself to be told that God's work in 
the world is all done, or that some one un- 
like yourself is to do it, but believe God and 
listen to no other counsel. Do not allow 
one word or one jot of His counsel to escape 
you, but give all advice to the contrary a 
decided subordination. The fact remains 
true to the present age that God will honor 
those who honor Him, and those who de- 
spise His counsel will be lightly esteemed. 

Especially should one be careful not to 
prosecute the plans of life in his own 
strength. Those who do so, resort to hu- 
man resources which most effectively shut 
God out of the circumstance. They employ 
force, the power of the press, the influence 
of eloquence, persuasive arguments and 
combinations of numbers and money, all of 
which make it impossible for God to take 
part. This, of course, means disaster; for, 



Working to No Effect 149 

in that case, we not only encounter the op- 
position of men, but the displeasure of God. 
By all means take on the meekness of Moses, 
the simplicity of Jesus, and the subordina- 
tion of His forerunner John that God may 
fight your battles and be glorified. 

To avoid the downfall of our works is 
not only highly important, but how to do it 
is perfectly plain. If, without God's sanc- 
tion, our life work is to fall, it should not be 
begun without His sanction. His approval 
is the first thing to be secured by him who 
would begin a business or formulate a plan. 
The one sure way to fail is to begin without 
God; the one certain way to succeed is to 
begin and continue with Him. To occupy 
land without a title is not more perilous 
than to undertake life's work without God. 
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
wisdom, of education and of business. 



PART II 



VI 

WORKING FOR SELF SUPPORT 

To presume that it makes no difference 
in Heaven how we spend our time upon the 
earth is preposterous. When the husband- 
man casts seed into the soil he expects re- 
sults. When the master of the estate com- 
missions men for their various places of la- 
bor, he relies upon those men for the faith- 
ful discharge of duty. Children in school 
or children at home are by nature never 
suffered to trifle with time or talent or the 
possibilities of life. So, also, are all peo- 
ple. They are not haltered or led by in- 
stinct, nor are they stalled by fate, but they 
are expected to use the greatness of their 
liberty and the vastness of their opportun- 
ity to the honor of God and the well being 
of man. To destroy they are not suffered; 
to neglect they are forbidden, and to ren- 
der a service good and faithful they are both 
urged and required. 

If God has any intentions at all regard- 
151 



152 Human Occupation 

ing us, if He expects any thing from us, He 
expects two things: that we shall do some 
good and great work in this world and that 
we shall support ourselves while we are do- 
ing it. It is reasonable in the light of Na- 
ture or Revelation that so high an order of 
beings as is ours, is here for something per- 
manent and of consequence; not merely to 
pass the time, or to act passively, or indif- 
ferently. We are forced by Nature and 
commanded by Inspiration to act on our 
highest intelligence and with our utmost 
resources. There is a great variety of oper- 
ations and there are a great many places in 
which to live; but wherever we live and 
whatever we do, we are to act wisely, nobly 
and for good, and that with all our might. 
This primarily is our object in the world. 
Were we angels we would need no support, 
and there would be nothing else required of 
us. But since we are mortal and would 
perish without support, God surrounds us 
with plenty and welcomes us to help our- 
selves. Yes, He commands us to help our- 
selves, and that we should do so is the first 
and final edict of Heaven. Not only that; 
but He is much concerned how we shall do 



Working for Self Support 153 

so. He would have us act in a dignified and 
thoughtful way ; more thoughtful of others 
than of ourselves. He would not have us 
seize our food because it is plenty, or ap- 
propriate more than we need, but He would 
have us self-supporting. We must not beg ; 
we must not depend upon others; what 
things we need to execute our high calling, 
we must with dignity procure. 

When we have looked to angels for our 
example, and to Revelation for our com- 
mand, we may look to nature for our illus- 
tration. Where on the hill the fragrant 
orchard lifts its snowy crown, the robin has 
her solid nest. Five little ones are hers; 
committed to her care. For them she pre- 
pared the nest; for them she warmed the 
eggs; for them she searches far and near 
that she may bring home to each hungry 
mouth another morsel of food. She lives 
for them. It is the supreme business of her 
life to nourish them up to maturity and to 
their mission. Yet she devotes a margin of 
her time to securing her own support, know- 
ing that unless she does so the sum of her 
interests will perish. 

So man resembles that of which he is a 



154 Human Occupation 

part. What his mission is we may not here 
define, but we know it is not primarily to 
feed himself. He has his work; so do an- 
gels have theirs, but it is not for either 
primarily to secure a living. Man's com- 
mission is breathed from on high; it is re- 
sponded to in the warm heart of every in- 
dividual man. Pursuant to his calling, man 
delves in forest or field ; he digs in the earth ; 
he traverses the sea ; he beautifies the world ; 
he ennobles the race ; he glorifies God. Sup- 
port he must have. God would not see him 
work without it, nor would his fellow men. 
The more earnestly a man works, the more 
effective he is in some high and holy call- 
ing; the more he is entitled to support, and 
the more in haste are both God and men to 
find him. 

There is no suggestion in this that God's 
ministers abroad, or at home, should refuse 
a salary or be compelled to maintain them- 
selves and provide for their own. This is 
the twentieth century of Christendom, and 
nothing is more common than for ministers 
regularly qualified and employed to be pro- 
vided with at least a moderate support, — 
compensation awaits them in another world. 



Working for Self Support 155 

Almost any day a young person rising up 
and owning a divine call, and expressing a 
desire to go to a given field for disinterested 
operations in behalf of humanity, can find 
material as well as moral support. Happily 
most men inspired to do great good are pro- 
vided at once with means to do it. But in 
case they are not so supported, the field 
should not be abandoned, or the work post- 
poned, but invoking Heaven's blessing, and 
resolving on self-support, let him who is 
called be obedient to the call. Deplorable 
indeed must be the sight in Heaven to see 
God's anointed seeking a paying parish, 
being swayed by salary, forsaking perishing, 
unsaved souls for fields of fortune; or quit- 
ting their calling altogether. While men 
permit themselves to be thus swayed by 
money, they cannot command the respect of 
Heaven, or of the heathen, or even of them- 
selves. While the world is unsubdued, 
while the suffering human race lies mainly 
in heathenism, while God's unheeded com- 
mands reach our ears, there is something to 
do. It is held as deeply disgraceful for a 
man to allow his fields to grow up to weeds 
while his children perish for corn; or for 



156 Human Occupation 

one to idle, unconcerned, hands in pockets, 
and coat unthrown, while flames consume 
his city and its people. But men may be- 
come passive to all things. Cities may 
burn ; seas overflow ; the world go to weeds ; 
the race die unwarned, unfed, unclothed, 
untaught, while men stand idly by and wish 
some one would furnish the means that they 
might go forth to the saving work. 

It is not God's original or amended plan 
that His requirements be carried out in that 
way. One man is not to be sent by another 
nor is one man to support another. In the 
original intent God sends and God sup- 
ports; He calls, He governs, He feeds, He 
rewards. It is obvious that no one else can 
do this nor can any body of men. God by 
His Spirit led Peter forth from place to 
place, and verily he was fed. By His Spirit 
He commissioned Paul, and administered 
his labors over the civilized world. In all 
the ages when the Bible grew to its divine 
greatness, we hear little of human aid, or 
organization, or of God's servants waiting 
for human aid ; while in those ages lived the 
most eminent men of the Kingdom, and 
they wrought for God wherever and when- 



Working for Self Support 157 

ever called. Did they suffer? Yes: But 
by their experiences God taught the world. 
The method of it all was that they obeyed 
God, relying on Him for support. 

Should this plan be followed today three 
gains great beyond description would ob- 
tain. 

I. Should God be so kind and so gracious 
as to call man to His work, man would dare 
to go. We have no record that Moses, or 
Jonah, or John or Paul were concerned 
about their support. They may have been 
surprised that honor so great was conferred 
as it was; but they knew and believed the 
source of their support. Were they pau- 
pers? Did they beg? Were they depend- 
ent upon those to whom they preached? 
No men have ever been more insistent upon 
an approved income than have God's various 
ministers. When called, they arose and 
went, doubting nothing. They were fed by 
birds, fed by beasts, fed by meat and drink 
and bread sent from the open hand of God. 
They made friends, and from them enjoyed 
gifts, but never is it evident that these an- 
cient worthies, nourished of God, were in 
the least detained or diverted by any con- 
sideration of support. 
11 



158 Human Occupation 

II. Should men, who are moved by the 
Holy Ghost to some good and noble work, 
dare to go, relying on God and self-support, 
the worst of the world would soon be 
reached; nor would it have lain bleeding, 
dying and untouched until recent ages. 
Since Christ made all things ready and 
commanded his followers to go forth into 
all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature, nineteen golden centuries have 
passed. Only two of them have been greatly 
used for the extension of His Kingdom into 
the world. These two centuries, the first 
and the last, have been the glory of the 
church, God's crown of rejoicing. In both, 
men and woman have gone forth through 
all the world by thousands, obeying the 
commands of God, discipling the nations. 
Continents that were dark and undiscovered 
were illuminated by the incoming kingdom. 
Islands that were perishing in ignorance and 
iniquity were reached and altered through- 
out. The work cherished by the Holy 
Ghost for ages was wrought out. Preemi- 
nent in this have been the Christians of the 
first and last centuries. Those of the first 
century were self-supporting or dependent 



Working for Self Support 159 

upon God direct; those of the last century 
drew their support from vast organizations 
of benevolent Christians in those parts of 
the world already evangelized. Without 
comment I pass to the next consideration. 

III. It is true that in recent times God 
has called thousands to the work and they 
have been sent. He also called other thou- 
sands who have not been sent, for as yet 
funds for their support are not forthcom- 
ing; and to go, depending on God alone, 
they are not able, as they have not been 
taught in that faith. The result is that at 
the present time an army is in the field, sup- 
ported at home, and another army has vol- 
unteered, but to send them, the funds are 
not available. The cry goes up almost the 
world over for funds. Missionary societies 
are often in distress, and the world still 
sinks. 

I believe, moreover, that if the choice 
young manhood and womanhood, who feel 
called of God to a life of greatness in dan- 
gerous places, would no longer wait for 
funds, but go forward trusting God, they 
would reap for the world and for themselves 
experiences the worth of which could not be 



160 Human Occupation 

computed in millions. When Moses re- 
stored Israel to her own, he needed power, 
but not the power of money. When Daniel 
ruled with such eminence in Babylon, it 
was made possible, not by the command of 
money, but by the power of God, secured 
by prayer. When Elijah overthrew idol- 
atry in Israel, he was living on meat and 
drink delivered miraculously. The super- 
natural is largely left out of the life of God's 
people today because it is crowded out. 
God's arm is not shortened, nor is His pur- 
pose changed, but our youth are reared to 
depend upon the intellectual, financial and 
numerical strength of the church. Relying 
on these, faith is not used, nor is its power 
available. God can supply all our needs, 
He can overthrow all opposition and dis- 
place every mountain of difficulty; but we 
seldom see it done in modern times. There- 
fore, the present generation believes it can- 
not be done. Both the church and the world 
admit the lack of power. Some say 'There 
is no God. He does not exist to-day, and 
it is presumable He never did exist. The 
ancient stories of His greatness must be 
false." We are left without faith because 



Working for Self Support 161 

our people do not experience the super- 
natural daily. It is a calamity that has over- 
taken us that we are possessed of visible 
power, and are therefore dispossessed of 
the supernatural. Cary, Livingston, Pat- 
ton, Finey, Moody have yielded their testi- 
mony. Yet the realities of the days of 
Peter and Paul should be more widely felt, 
that the world may be convinced. No one 
thing that I can think of would enrich the 
world so much as for those young Chris- 
tians who are truly called of God to go for- 
ward to their work relying upon God and 
self for support. Missionary societies 
should not be ignored, for their wisdom can- 
not be dispensed with. Go under the bless- 
ing of the Church for it is God's body upon 
the earth. But if you would redeem man, 
enrich the world, glorify God, and enroll 
your name with the most eminent ministers 
of all time; go soon, relying on God and 
your own natural resources. 

Such advice should not be given to God's 
ministers only; it is a doctrine that con- 
cerns the world. Men in all the walks of 
life need the presence and power of God. 
We are reared to trust in riches; to rely on 



162 Human Occupation 

learning; to have hope in natural and ma- 
terial resources ; but these have wrought the 
ruin of thousands. Those of the human 
family who have accomplished great things 
for God and humanity, and have given 
themselves an imperishable name, have 
drawn their power from a higher source. 
Seldom have wealth and greatness crowned 
the same brow. Wealth cannot prevent 
greatness by its presence or by its absence, 
if a soul so resolves, but it is a controlling 
force which too often intimidates, restrains, 
absorbs or dissipates. Wealth proves fatal 
most often where people depend upon it 
rather than upon God and their natural re- 
sources. 

Should we revert to history and summon 
her testimony concerning the power that 
really qualifies men for greatness, we find 
Cary, poor, despising money, reluctant to 
comply with the advice of friends, unable to 
hear any command but that of his God and 
daring to trust His leadership, going forth 
to that which was savage and heathen, and 
establishing the beginnings of the true and 
eternal Kingdom of God. We are ad- 
dressed by the eloquent life of Livingston, 



Working for Self Support 163 

determined on an education, resolved on the 
enlightenment of the world's blackest con- 
tinent, braving the seas, the coasts, the in- 
terior, savages, beasts, disease; not dread- 
ing his field or doubting his resources. We 
are compelled to acknowledge that our 
Grants and our Lincolns were not made by 
money; nor has money or learning or orig- 
inal popularity given elevation to any of 
those whom the world calls great. Always 
have they been self reliant men, and usually 
have they derived their chief succor from 
the God whose cause they served. 

Money passes away; knowledge passes 
away, but the advances gained by the sons 
of God, and the selfreliant are never lost. 
Paul dared to go unpaid to preach the Gos- 
pel in Europe. Europe was Christianized 
and has ever since been the home and strong- 
hold of Christianity. Columbus dared to 
navigate the seas unknown, and to him was 
discovered the New World. America will 
not need to be discovered again. Living- 
ston and his associates tore the black veil 
from Africa ; light has flooded the continent 
and soon it will be forever free. The world 
is not wrong in crowning those as greatest 



L64 Human Occupation 

who bring to pass the greatest things. The 
world blesses those who most bless it. 
Herein is one reason Jesus the Christ is 
ranked as the greatest character of His- 
tory. These men might have chosen the way 
of the least resistance, the broad way, the 
easy way, the way that fills destruction with 
destruction, but, supporting themselves, 
they chose rather the service of God and the 
good of the world. 

It is in the appropriate recognition of 
history that we glean our lessons for the 
present. The panorama of the past brings 
to prominence three facts — facts that should 
be set as guiding lights to the youth of every 
age. 

I. The greatest and most useful men of 
all time have had to contend with stern 
realities. Take down the records, sacred or 
profane; unfold their living pages to the 
names of renown; discover the heroes who 
have brought things to pass; see who have 
been chosen of God and men to places of re- 
sponsibility, honor and influence; observe 
who have been most effective, who have 
stood best the storms of their times, and 
who are the victors in the battle of life. It 



Working for Self Support 165 

will in most cases be revealed that they are 
not those born rich, or lucky or in the lap 
of opulence. They are men and women who 
are inured by hardships and often by pov- 
erty; who have fought because they had to 
fight and who have conquered in the final 
and consummate battle of life because they 
were victors in the preceding engagements. 
As a single and faithful illustration: 
David, the youthful stripling of Judea, be- 
came the most powerful and renowned king 
of the Jews. He reigned with more favor 
and more success in war and in peace than 
any who ever came before or after. He 
ushered in the golden age of Israel and 
reared the son who saw its decline. He ar- 
rived at this greatness because he was pre- 
pared through the circumstances of his 
youth. As a shepherd lad in the fields at 
Bethlehem, he led and protected his father's 
flocks. Night and day he drank in visions 
of God from above. He was pressed to 
the encounter with the bear and with the 
lion in which he achieved his initial suc- 
cesses. In consequence his faith waxed 
strong and was sufficient in the day of fate 
to make him superior to his older brothers, 



166 Human Occupation 

his king and the entire army of the land. 
Under ridicule and regal caution he ad- 
vanced alone, armed with a slender staff and 
a shepherd's sling, confident in Jehovah who 
controls the fortunes of war, and of peace. 
The defiant giant, with one blow was 
stricken down, his monstrous members quiv- 
ering on the plain. The man preferred of 
God ran forward, stood upon the bulky 
shoulders of his victim and with one stroke 
of the captured sword, struck off his head 
and was king in the hearts of the people. 
Thus God extols those who honor Him. 
-Not only was his solitary origin the making 
of the man, but to a great extent it was the 
keeping of him, for he remembered who 
had exalted him and remained faithful. 

These teachings will not have their due 
weight unless still farther illustrated. It 
was not his training at the Court of Egypt, 
but his forty years of solitude at Sinai that 
most qualified Moses for one of the greatest 
missions with which man was ever charged. 
In those remote confines, what he already 
knew was acted upon by the Divine mind. 
Moses' faith was nourished by circum- 
stances and experiences until it was timely 



Working for Self Support 167 

and appropriate that God should appear in 
the glory cloud and commit to Moses his 
life call. Unable to believe and enter at 
once upon the undertaking impossible, 
Moses was himself taught to believe a mir- 
acle and its author by seeing his rod con- 
verted to a serpent and his hand rendered 
worse than dead with palsy. This practice 
work was sufficient, for by it Moses was en- 
abled to believe himself in the hands of the 
Almighty, qualified and commissioned for 
his work. This being done, he, being in the 
possession of the necessary faith, at once 
proceeded to be the chief instrument in a 
series of the greatest and most miraculous 
events that have transpired in the whole 
earth — a storm of plagues upon rebellious 
Egypt and a series of successful wars upon 
the opposing nations that did not end until 
Moses had been gathered to Heavenly 
honors and his surviving subjects were es- 
tablished in the coveted land of promise. 

The number of eminent men and women 
who can trace their call and creation back 
to what might be called humble and adverse 
circumstances, can never be known. Their 
names and commanding acts fill the records. 



168 Hum ax Occupation 

Their heads have borne the honor of all na- 
tions and all times. What made them is not 
ahw-.ys confessed, not always chronicled, but 
where men have attained greatness, it has 
usually been under the eye of God and un- 
av:i:l:-.ble circumstances. — the labors of the 
day, the vis: ens of the night, the prayers of 
parents and the necessity of real contact 
with the world as they have found it. Labor 
has her reward, solitude her inspiration, and 
prayer begets wings. 

II. Working for self-support is not to be 
despised. If we have something to live for, 
if we are devoting all our power to some 
work that honors the workman and bene- 
fits humanity, then God is glorified, and 
man may well labor with his hands as a 
means of self-support The same work, if 
it were pursued as an end and for the pur- 
pose of securing a living only, would be ut- 
terly unworthy of the attention of the same 
men. 

Among Gospel preachers, there are none 
who preached with more pronounced honor 
or more conspicuous success than did the 
apostle Paul. Master of a trade, he took 
his humble trade with him. not to make 



Working for Self Support 169 

money, but that he might be a living 
preacher of Christ, independent of the 
Pagan World. He was called to be an 
apostle to the Gentiles. He must travel 
among strangers, foreigners, enemies; he 
must go among all the countries bounding 
two sides of the great sea ; he must proclaim 
a message of love and condemnation to peas>- 
ant and potentate; he must visit city and 
country, palace and hut; he must represent 
the supreme throne of the universe, and do 
so with honor; he must not be a beggar, a 
dependent, or a parasite; he must be sub- 
ordinate only to God, his master, and a 
debtor to no man. 

To go with wealth he was not able, nor 
w r ould it have been becoming. No ambas- 
sador of God or true friend of man travels 
in state on a mission to this poor world. 
Their riches, though not denied, are laid up 
in Heaven. They who are sent of God are 
clothed with authority but not with flowing 
robes. That they may sit at meat with the 
poor and uplift the fallen of all ranks, it is 
necessary that they come as Jesus did, and 
as He sent His apostles, without purse or 
provision, but prepared for independence, 



170 Human Occupation 

and clothed with authority. God's ambas- 
sadors are never to be seen begging bread 
or burdened with many loaves. 

With the Gentile World as his field, Paul 
must refuse his commission or undertake it 
as he did, prepared to labor secondarily for 
self support. Not more thus than others, 
perhaps, for to this day the case holds true 
that God's representatives must not be de- 
pendent unless it is upon co-workers and 
allies in the work. The missions that pene- 
trate the darkest lands, or besiege the high- 
est courts must alike be self-supporting; 
that is, dependent on self, or on allies at the 
base of operation, and not upon those dis- 
interested, or hostile, or to whom the mis- 
sion is sent. 

The actual history of the benefactors of 
the world is that in all times and places, and 
in all undertakings, they labored from a 
motive not pecuniary, but benevolent. They 
must press their good work forward to com- 
pletion, often supporting themselves and 
defraying all expenses of their enterprise. 
To souls willing to do this, we owe not only 
the kingdom of righteousness and love, but 
the world of letters, art, and science. Such 



Working for Self Support 171 

men have wrought out what the world has 
of good today. Some of them have died 
without reward ; some of them without rec- 
ognition; but they dared to fill their places 
at their own expense, the reward not con- 
sidered. Not so much can be said of those 
who would do anything or go anywhere if 
only it paid. Their description occurs in 
another chapter, and their condemnation is 
administered by the world's most righteous 
Judge. 

III. Because one is poor is not the slight- 
est reason for declining a call to greatness. 
In reality wealth is but a small aid in the 
matters that are recognized as great; more 
often it is a detriment. It weighs down the 
soul in this world. It gives man self-reli- 
ance or rather reliance upon resources on 
the earth. While it does not remove neces- 
sity, men commonly think it does, and, be- 
cause of it, men fail to make that all essen- 
tial alliance with God so necessary to real 
and permanent success. It gives men facili- 
ties for doing good, but it involves them 
with the world, and life becomes a confu- 
sion of purposes, often ending in devotion 
to pleasure. Rather than being an aid to 



172 Human Occupation 

greatness, wealth more often becomes a bar- 
rier. The resources that one must rely upon 
to become great, good and useful, are those 
within the reach of every average youth. 
They are summed up in this, — Loyalty to 
God. 

In the first place who is it that calls you 
to greatness ? Is it not God ? If so, He has 
ample means for guiding you. The silver 
and the gold are His; He can positively 
command them at His will. Wherever He 
sees fit to turn their tide He can do so. If 
He needs them in your behalf, if their pos- 
session by you is essential to your success, 
He can so direct the currents of wealth that 
you will abound in resources of that kind. 
But in most cases the money you need is lit- 
tle. What you do need is the spirit to rely 
upon God and achieve with money or with- 
out it. 

"Only be thou strong and very cour- 
ageous, that thou mayest observe to do ac- 
cording to all the law, which Moses my 
servant commanded thee: turn not from it 
to the right hand or to the left, that thou 
mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest." 

"This book of the law shall not depart 



Working for Self Support . 173 

out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate 
therein day and night, that thou mayest ob- 
serve to do according to all that is written 
therein: for then thou shalt make thy way 
prosperous, and then thou shalt have good 
success." — Joshua i 7-8. 

This positive assurance comes from God, 
and is binding, if the undertaking is for 
God and bears His approval. If the under- 
taking is not of God, it had better be aban- 
doned at once for it will prove a most ex- 
pensive measure. In this may God help 
us all. 

If this doctrine had evidence only in the 
Scriptures, some might imagine they have 
room for disbelief, but history at every 
point confirms the theory that men who are 
self-sufficient and decline to rely upon God 
are unsettled and overturned at every stage 
of procedure. Others, though poor, under- 
taking the God given mission, and carrying 
it forward to a consummation of honor, re- 
lying upon self for support, and upon God 
for inspiration and help, are prospered and 
cheered on over every obstacle to the glory 
sought end. Those who win are those who 
begin and carry forward their cause in the 

fear of God. 
12 



174 Human Occupation 

This should be easy to believe, because 
God in ancient times raised Moses, the white 
slave, and in modern times Frederick Doug- 
lass, the black slave, to great and command- 
ing usefulness. It is evident because Lin- 
coln, always self-supporting, yet always de- 
pendent upon God, rose from actual poverty 
to be his country's defender and savior. It 
is true of Livingston who, called and claimed 
of God, proceeded without funds to discover 
to the Christian World, the bestial savagery 
of Africa. It is true of most ministers who 
have gone forth with weeping, sowing pre- 
cious seed; who have borne the battle for 
God and humanity in the heat of the day; 
who, being in the midst of wolves, have been 
as harmless as doves and as gentle as lambs. 
They have trusted in God, secured their own 
living if it was necessary, and traversed the 
world for Christ. 

By the absence of wealth men should 
never be daunted. If wealth were yours, 
most likely you would fail; without it, it is 
certain you can succeed. If the question be 
asked, how this is certain, there can be but 
one answer: No one but God can guaran- 
tee success. If you want to be sure of sue- 



Working for Self Support 175 

cess, abide in Him, and let His Word abide* 
in you. Inventors have succeeded; authors 
have succeeded ; warriors have succeeded, so 
have statesmen, educators and professional 
men. In regard to their success, one thing 
can be said of all. They have been willing 
to support themselves while bringing for- 
ward their great contribution to the world. 
As to the extent and permanence of their 
success, we can not know minutely. But 
this we may know that if we would suc- 
ceed, there is but one sure procedure. 

It can hardly be pleaded that in this age 
there is no occasion for self-denial, or of 
pushing forward the good works of the past. 
America is settled but not saved; Africa is 
discovered, but not civilized; great Asia is 
but partly aroused ; while Europe, armed on 
land and sea, still prays more for empire 
upon earth than she prays for interests in 
Heaven. The youth of our time are pointed 
to the solitudes of the mountain or the for- 
ests, to the resounding streets of commerce, 
or to the seats of human government in 
quest of gain. How seldom does the parent 
hand down the cross and say to his aspiring 
offspring: "By this conquer/' The work 



176 Human Occupation 

is before us still as of old. From our ranks 
God would call forth His self-denying, and 
if need be, self-supporting servants. As the 
gong of eternity resounds, may it find us 
at every hour with our faces toward our 
duty, our desires akin to God's, and our 
hands, rewarded from above, filled with the 
labor of love. 



VII 

DEVOTION TO FAMILY 

The brook that has its crystal origin at 
the fern-bound foot of the mountain and 
seeks through storms and alterations her 
far off expansion into the sea, is not unlike 
the human family. It arose in purity, bos- 
omed in God and destined for a long career 
in the earth, but tempests have beset its 
progress in every generation. Its storn> 
washed banks have yielded the roil of sin, 
corruption has filled the once limpid flood, 
her own sediment has filled her full and the 
onmoving race spreads itself into branches 
over the oozing delta of human sin. 

In the disaster of the race there is not 
essential discouragement, for we now live 
under new light and every father is the 
founder of a new family. Not free from 
heredity or proof against environment, his 
offspring nevertheless comes forth compara- 
tively clean and under a light of grace that 
primeval ages did not enjoy. Facilities, 
177 



178 Human Occupation 

such as we have today, for the culture of 
youth, as well as the agencies for their con- 
tamination, were in former generations un- 
known. And as yet they are not what they 
will be, for as long as the Lord delays His 
coming, the forces for good and evil will 
grow stronger, the lines will be drawn 
sharper and the contention for the control 
of the youth will ever be greater between 
the opposing kingdoms of light and dark- 
ness. The family in secluded safety is soon 
to be a thing of the past, and over every in- 
nocent household will be bending in solici- 
tude not only the spirits of Heaven and the 
spirits of Hell, but their allies upon the 
earth. The fate of the youth was once to a 
great measure left to fortune, or to the grace 
from above as opposed to the arrows from 
below, but, it can no longer be ignored, the 
war has been taken up in this world and evil 
withstands good face to face. Subtility and 
sin in mingled perfidy dart the head and 
blow the poison wherever cleanliness and 
innocence are exposed. 

It is the parents' privilege to give birth to 
these little innocents of earth, to nestle them 
in their homes, to bestow affection upon 



Devotion to Family 179 

them and withal to devote to them a part of 
the labor of every day. Not but the task is 
worthy of angels: it is. And that glory 
host would ask no earthly honor greater 
than to have and to nurture such stars of 
the morning as we call children — to rear 
them in every sunny valley, on every wav- 
ing prairie, in the bosom of the continents 
and within the call of the resounding sea. 
Even God in spirit partakes of the pleasure, 
inviting them to His arms, bearing them 
with security in His bosom, delighting in 
their innocence and protecting them with 
His stern command against the wiles and 
designs of those infernal. Yes, their care 
and nurture is a privilege which God and 
angels would not despise, but which is com- 
mitted to man only. 

What we call parental instinct is an ani- 
mation from within which moves every par- 
ent to provide for its own offspring even at 
the expense of others. It is seen among the 
eagles that nest and propagate among the 
clouds; it obtains among the gentle cooing 
doves of the cot. It is a God-given char- 
acteristic of man and has been since children 
were ushered into light. It attends both the 



180 Human Occupation 

father and the mother, and unless cast down 
by unspeakable depravity, it is an essential 
part of their glory here below. To be sure, 
it lifts them no higher than the beasts, for 
they too have implanted within their bestial 
being an instinct which they have never 
shaken off, a crown which they have never 
cast down, and in the jungles of the tropics 
or the frigid caverns of the poles, they al- 
ways respond, with such natures as they 
have, in mortal defence of their God-given 
young. In this respect man suffers by com- 
parison; for, although created above the 
beasts and the birds and the myriad hosts 
of the sea, he, only, has found capacity to 
fall below his created station, and trample 
underfoot his original glory. It is within 
his ability to ignore instinct and the bliss 
that attends its natural functions — to cast 
off the children committed to his care, and 
even to consume their substance and them, 
with a nature unknown to other creatures. 

While admitting man's ability to ignore 
the needs of his own offspring, it still re- 
mains true to fact that as nature goes in all 
the earth, it is usually man's purpose as 
.well as his privilege to provide for his own, 



Devotion to Family 181 

and in addition, it is in the third place posi- 
tively commanded him to do so. He that 
does not provide for his own is reckoned 
in Heaven, as he is on earth, as being 
"worse than an infidel". For certainly noth- 
ing could blight the blooming prospects of 
earth faster than for parents to desert their 
young and leave their dainty beings to wan- 
der over the cold earth at the mercy of cir- 
cumstances, without a home, without clothes 
or food, without love and without a teacher ; 
chance objects of charity, and protected only 
by the law of the land. 

No person can comprehend what is the 
value of that God-given institution, the 
home, until he compares the children who 
wander the earth without a home, with those 
who are cherished and nourished and reared 
up in love within the home. Nor can they 
know from external appearances alone, for 
to know, they must be able to feel. The lit- 
tle outcast lies down cold and without a kiss 
in the forbidding interior of a city coal bin ; 
his brother goes to his blissful rest amid pil- 
lows and perfumes, on the warm breast of 
his mother. The first business of the out- 
cast in the morning, if he lives to see the 



182 Human Occupation 

rising day, is to conquer forever every re- 
curring memory of home and mother and 
go forth in defiance of law and decency to 
seize upon some unwholesome morsel for 
the sustenance and the prolongation of his 
miserable little life; while the child of a 
home comes from his chamber, greeted by 
smiles and endearing words, to be nourished 
and blessed at the paternal board. One 
must defy the world and eke out the weary 
life of a vagabond : the other has a place 
and position ready made and waiting for his 
maturity, when he may succeed his father 
in position, responsibility and honor. There 
is however one heart that is no respecter of 
persons, one hand that is open to all; one 
bosom to which both are welcome and one 
eternal home and rest to which both are in- 
vited. In the esteem of their Creator both 
are loved and watched over. In Him both 
may have temporal success and everlasting 
bliss. The danger is that while the boy at 
home may know of this Friend and love, 
the boy outcast without a teacher may never 
hear of Him who saves and loves. 

The parent that surmounts depravity is 
first of all a bread-winner. This is in evi- 



Devotion to Family 183 

dence with the brave of the forest as well 
as with the most methodical civilian. It is 
his glory as well as his duty, lithe of limb 
and harnessed for the chase, to pursue to 
his final stand every beast of the forest; to 
reduce him to prey and bear him, boasting, 
back to the fold, as food. His associate in 
the responsibility, produces a rude, home- 
wrought, flawing tool with which the vic- 
tim is soon deprived of its skin, and its 
members are rendered into cuts appropriate 
for the fire that is already kindling to a 
flame. Then, as the flames augment and the 
quarters are turned while toasting crisp and 
brown, the beneficiaries range around with 
sparkling eyes and flowing mouth, recipients 
in order of what High Heaven decreed for 
their sustenance with their creation. 

The parent is next a home defender. But 
the arch enemy of the home and its enfolded 
innocents has not always been properly lo- 
cated. In all man's wanderings upon the 
earth he has gone around as though he 
dreaded somebody. Distrustful of his an- 
gel guardian, by night he has slept under 
arms and by day he has been ready to pur- 
sue or oppose his foe. The political organ- 



184 Human Occupation 

izations we call states have sprung into be- 
ing in all ages, save those primeval and most 
remote, because they were regarded as a 
most formidable defense or offense against 
some real or possible foe. To defend their 
homes, men have maintained vast armies 
and floated imposing navies, they have in- 
voked the goddess of war and into her cof- 
fers have poured wealth — millions untold. 
War, the very thing that is most destructive 
to the home, has been resorted to that the 
home might be maintained in tact. Thus 
the history of the human race is a record of 
bloodshed and war. Rivers of human blood 
have run down, millions of treasure have 
been consumed in belligerent flame, and the 
enemy of the race has not been mortally hit. 
More than war, some have dreaded pesti- 
lence and famine. Their approaches are 
more subtle, nor is their advance hindered 
by walls or solid towers or masked artillery. 
Military resistance only invites their pres- 
ence and to resort to blows and blood only 
fattens the foe and augments its power. 
The noblemen of science who have sat in 
judgment over these subjects have rendered 
an invaluable service to the world in recent 



Devotion to Family 185 

years. They have caused deserts to gush 
forth crystal floods and bloom with flowers ; 
they have converted forbidding forests into 
sheltering homes; they have located the 
dread essence of diseases and thrown over 
them the pall of death ; they have discovered 
the hound for the germ; they have carried 
the war into the very lair and breeding place 
of disease; they have banished famine and 
clarified pestilence but they have failed fully 
to locate the arch enemy of the race. 

The arch enemy of our race is he who has 
sown this world with foul ideas. The ideas 
have fallen by day and night like tares 
among wheat and have sprung up in all 
minds like thistles, in all quarters of the 
earth. The enemy is invisible, though, vig- 
ilant and active, and his missiles enter by 
most unexpected avenues. Obscene pic- 
tures, lewd books, vocalized suggestions, 
enticing libations and mere acts of his agents 
are some of the means by which he throws 
his poison. But the forces that tear down 
innocent youth, robust manhood and an- 
gelic womanhood, that enter the sacred and 
guarded enclosure called home, and devas- 
tate its promise and its paradise, and do so 



186 Human Occupation 

more often than wars, more surely than 
death, are the insidious ideas cast abroad by 
this arch enemy of all mankind. 

Plague may be quarantined, armed co- 
horts may be repulsed with the sword, but 
the evils that most imperil our youth can not 
be found with search lights, nor routed with 
all the modern appliances of war. Should 
they be resisted by all the law and order 
lovers of the land ; they would still be pres- 
ent in society, somewhere, with more cer- 
tainty than that with which foulness per- 
vades pure air, and, with it, enters the 
vacuum. On many evils war has been 
waged, for the preservation of society and 
the protection of the home, but in most cases 
the relief was only temporary. And if the 
struggle, owing to the help and presence of 
God, was successful for a time, its relaxa- 
tion was but a signal for the sudden recur- 
rence of the evil. 

This state of affairs is due to the impor- 
tant fact that God's rational creatures in 
this world are not agreed as to what evil is 
and especially as how to deal with evil when 
recognized as such. This grave fault ob- 
tains because of the fact that men do not 



Devotion to Family 187 

recognize God's Word as authority. God 
has declared what sin is and what is sin, but 
his definition, though final and unchange- 
able, is not universally accepted. On any 
other definition it is impossible to unite, and 
there is no shadow of a hope that on this 
men will ever unite. Should they do so and 
all persevere to attain this ideal, the fog 
would rise and the presence of sin would be 
felt only from within gushing up from the 
fountain of heredity. 

Moreover, those who embrace most 
heartily God's definition of sin, and take all 
the measures appropriate for the extermina- 
tion of evil, can never resort to open or se- 
cret war on any but the original agent. 
Satan himself and all evil as such may be, 
if by any means possible, antagonized to the 
final stand, and there, in the last ditch be 
put to utter extinction. But to lay hands on 
man, woman or child, though they may be 
agents in open or secret evil, is not ours to 
do except in the name of the state. To pro- 
tect the good and suppress the bad, govern- 
ments are instituted. For that they are 
maintained and that is their God-given end. 
God's servants are to be subjects of and sub- 



188 Human Occupation 

ordinate to the state, but personally and on 
their own responsibility to raise a hand 
against no man. Not but God's authority 
is supreme; it is; but He has appointed the 
state to enforce order, and the individual is 
to let the wheat and the tares grow together 
until the harvest — the time when God Him- 
self takes matters in hand and calls all men 
to account. Then justice shall be meted out 
impartially to all and without respect to per- 
sons. 

This does not imply inactivity, content- 
ment in misery or submission to sin. On 
the contrary God's methods, if followed, are 
most effective in the dispelling of all evil. 
Every operation against sin is to be begun 
and carried forward by the help and in the 
presence of the Holy Spirit of God. First 
let every parent begin, in his own heart, a 
relentless war upon all sin. By prayer and 
study and compliance with God's revealed 
will drive out every sin and sweep the tem- 
ple clean for the indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit. Next by love and gentle vigilance 
let the home be cleansed of evil and filled 
with good, every heart filled with God and 
tuned to his praise. In this, force must not 



Devotion to Family 189 

be used, nor can it in any case be resorted 
to by man except in his own life. Himself, 
he should rid of the tyranny of sin if he 
has to change his business, his place of resi- 
dence, his relationships and all his pros- 
pects and plans of operation. But with 
others, only example, persuasion and mild 
rebuke, and they only in love, may be re- 
sorted to. In fact the prosecution should 
in all cases be against the sin, with the ut- 
most compassion and consideration for the 
sinner. 

For safety and security, not only should 
every evil in every form be expelled from 
the neighborhood and driven even from the 
world, but more than human vigilance must 
be maintained to keep it out of the world. 
The state, the church and the organization 
of the home have it for a principal part of 
their lifework to keep at a distance the evils 
that menace our youth. All these forces 
united and combined cannot maintain the 
purity of society, unassisted from above. 
Depravity has in all ages been found to be 
a part of man. There is a fountain of sin 
within and in somebody's life it will rise 
up and overflow to the contamination of the 

13 



190 Human Occupation 

interests of society. The great security 
against sin from within and from without 
is the presence and power of the Living 
Christ. This is often admitted to be true, 
but until Christ is relied upon daily, as cap- 
tain of the Lord's hosts, as he was by Joshua 
and his subordinates in their conquest of 
Palestine, His dependents will not be con- 
querors. Should any reader be desperately 
concerned for the safety of his children and 
the purity of the home, let him literally give 
over to Christ every child of his one by one 
and see them all gathered into His embrace. 
Do not take them back or call them your 
own. You have given them to Christ on 
the condition that He will keep them, care 
for them, make use of them and never let 
them fall. They are His, and at His con- 
trol as much so as the angels of heaven be- 
long to God. You are to assist Him in their 
care as His, and when He calls them you 
are to let them go for they are His. This 
way leads to success, and the guarantee is 
that it leads to honor, for God will honor 
those who honor Him. Let your home be 
a little empire subordinate to Christ en- 
throned and administering daily from its 
very center. 



Devotion to Family 191 

The parent is not only the child's pro- 
vider and angelic defender but he is as well, 
the child's teacher. The delicate mortal be- 
ing enters this threshold of life with a vast 
world and a vaster eternity before it. God 
expects the parent to meet it then, and tak- 
ing the little hand to lead it forward and be 
its teacher in life. All things in heaven and 
in earth are at the parent's command, and 
he may lead where he will, but woe unto 
that parent that does and teaches wrong in 
the presence of his little ones. For them 
his aspirations must be great; his motives 
pure; and, whether the road be thorny or 
high hedged, he must never be contented, 
for his ward, with a destination lower than 
Heaven or a presence other than that of his 
God. 

To this great end the teacher begins with 
lowly things at close proximity, and no age 
better than our own has known how to lead 
a little child forward into the world of na- 
ture and of letters. With care and classi- 
fication the animal kingdom is brought be- 
fore him, — things that fly, that creep, that 
roam on fours, that cleave the world wide 
floods, and, that crown of creation, man 



192 Human Occupation 

himself, — as they appear to the unaided or- 
gan of perception. 

Where these animals dwell is of no less 
interest to the child than what they are like, 
and to show them is no less the duty and 
pleasure of the parent. They are found to 
abound in the impenetrable forest, roaming 
in terror through its solitudes and caverns; 
they abound in the air, superior to all be- 
low, nesting in the tossing tree and in the 
summits of the immovable mountains. The 
wide bosomed sea, smitten with sun and 
moon alike, is made fairly sick by the mov- 
ing in its interior of uncounted millions of 
created things. What animate things are 
and when and how they live is a study af- 
fording student and teacher alike, infinite 
pleasure; but in it all the study of man is 
not only the most profound and varied, but 
by far the most extensive. He has moved 
and migrated over the earth with more un- 
certainty than the birds, his presence in any 
given place has been more felt than that of 
the most powerful or ferocious beast; there 
is no land nor sea where he has not lived, 
nor is it yet fully known what he has or has 
not undertaken to do. Types and tendencies 



Devotion to Family 193 

diversify him; he has a history, a mind su- 
perior, a conscience and an eternity of ex- 
istence. Man far surpasses all other animate 
creations of the world. What he has done 
constitutes History, as well as where and 
how he lives constitutes Political Geog- 
raphy and Sociology. The child that fol- 
lows with interest the study of man thus 
far, will find it of profit to study the earth 
beneath man's feet, Physical Geography, 
and the heavens above his head, Astronomy. 
In fact, the study of man, or of any other 
part of creation in all its relations, involves 
at length a study of the universe. 

The parent leads forth the child to learn 
what is to be seen, not only, but as well to 
learn what is to be done. Were the former 
to constitute the entire function of life, it 
would indeed be a pleasant task ; but to take 
a part in the work of this world affords a 
joy along with the necessity and develop- 
ment, known to no other intelligence in the 
universe. It resembles the experience of 
angels, but it more closely resembles the 
work of God. To think that man is to lay 
hand to the work of evolving the world and 
redeeming the race ! It is something amaz- 



194 Human Occupation 

ing, and that commands the awe of angels. 
And yet God not more certainly gives us 
being than he calls upon us to discharge 
these functions and to rear up our children 
to follow us in this same high alliance with 
God. 

The mother, teacher, missionary, angel, 
all in one, lifts her son and pupil from his 
rest and refreshments and bears him forth 
to take lessons. He is to be an actor in 
the great world of realities. She knows 
not what he is to be, she only knows that 
God knows. God has made him for some- 
thing, and has placed him in the world where 
he is to nobly act while he participates in 
the scenes of time. Is he to be the artist 
that causes creation to live on canvas? Or 
that recalls to men's minds by letters all 
things that have occurred ? Is he to conduct 
war or record war? She knows nothing 
of these things. To her this has not been 
revealed. She only knows that somewhere, 
some way he is to be a co-laborer with God, 
and to this end she has brought him forth. 

There are three things toward which the 
parent must labor if he would bring the 
child to usefulness and honor. It is charged 



Devotion to Family 195 

to the parents to do these three things and 
if they do them not, they probably will 
never be done. They are : 

I. Labor that the child may find his life 
work. 

II. Labor that the child may qualify for 
that work. 

III. Labor that the child may by noth- 
ing be prevented from performing that 
work. 

In these days of formality parents have 
delegated the education of their children 
to a great extent to public or community 
teachers, — teachers for the secular schools, 
teachers for the Sabbath schools, and teach- 
ers in the pulpit. But it is rarely that any of 
these teachers seek diligently to discharge 
for the child, the three duties charged upon 
the parent as indicated above. This work 
and responsibility rest upon the parent and 
if not discharged by him, go undone, un- 
less, by God's grace and the superiority of 
the child, the results are finally, though 
tardily, achieved, despite the faultiness of 
the parent. 

Now let it be said here most advisedly to 
the parent. It is not important that you lead 



196 Human Occupation 

your son over the earth and show him the 
operation of the thousands of crafts known 
to man. and let him in turn try the reali- 
ties of each, until, as life is ebbing away, 
he finds one well pleasing to his taste. But 
it is important that he select one occupation 
that is honest, noble, and progressive, and 
that he secure in himself a God-given devo- 
tion to it. In fact parents make a grave 
mistake in ever allowing their children to 
so much as suppose that they are at lib- 
erty to enter any occupation whatsoever, if 
only it is pleasing to their taste. To follow 
taste is with some people to follow the line 
of least resistance, with others it is to fol- 
low the course most gratifying to the flesh, 
with others it is to follow the avenue that 
abounds with most pleasing prospects, while 
others prefer the sound of in-rolling gold, 
though the valley trod may lead through 
smoke and sweat down to the deep realities 
of ruin. No vocation is fit for a child unless 
it is honest, honorable and progressive, — 
progressive toward the great goal depicted 
for man by God himself. 

II. When a youth has ever so wisely 
made choice of one of the heaven blessed 



Devotion to Family 197 

avocations known to man, he has still to 
qualify and enter it. To prevent him, a 
thousand snakey heads may arise. Mole 
hills of difficulties may expand into moun- 
tains of opposition. His chosen field, once 
all aglow with blossom, may be in reality a 
field of battles, of drudgery, of prosy same- 
ness. Its foundations may collapse or its 
summit arise in appearance so high that it 
is not to be entered, though struggled for 
for years. And so we meet youth who have 
nobly chosen and valiantly striven for a 
field of earthly operations who have turned 
back disheartened and in tears admitting 
their defeat and almost deploring their sin- 
cere choice. When asked where their 
teacher is it is found that they have not de- 
serted the teacher, but the teacher has de- 
serted them. The parent should never suf- 
fer this but remembering the necessity of 
the case, must be a teacher in the battle of 
life, and by transcendent faith and spirit 
lead on and on when other teachers falter, 
and place the child far to the front in the 
attainments of men. A parent ought to 
know how to trust God and take the lead, 
and if by prayer and toil, they cannot out- 



198 Human Occupation 

ride the storm and be superior to all opposi- 
tion, no one can, God does not require 
secular teachers or even ministers of re- 
ligion to go farther with and dare more for 
the child than its own parents will do and 
dare. 

What the child needs in his preparation 
for a useful career is not money, though that 
is useful, but a strong body, a trained mind, 
good character and a knowledge of God. 
Not in every case, but in most cases, all 
these are essential to success. If any one 
of them must be stricken from the list, let it 
be the first one. If two, let them be the 
first two; if three, let them be the first 
three. For in illness and ignorance and 
wickedness one may begin success if only 
he may find and lay hold upon God. The, 
fear of the Lord is not only the beginning 
of wisdom, it is the beginning of success; 
and having laid hold upon God, those that 
have no character are given character, hav- 
ing no social favor, they are given it; hav- 
ing a dark mind they are given an en- 
lightened one, and having no health they 
are by Him "Who healeth all our diseases/' 
given health enough to overturn mountains 



Devotion to Family 199 

and transform continents. If it is success 
you wish for your child, never believe you 
have helped him to it until you have helped 
him to God, and your child's hand and the 
hand of his God are securely clasped. When 
God becomes his teacher and leader the par- 
ent can afford to resign. 

III. When children have become adults, 
have found their field of operation, have 
entered it, and have proved the more im- 
portant relations of life, the parent-teacher 
is apt to think his work done. The young 
man, it is thought, may then be left to ride 
the storm of life unadvised and unaided. 
But such in reality is not the case. When 
ready to fly, the young bird may be left 
to the unerring hand of instinct; the 
weaned whelp may be left to brave with 
desperation its chances among the powers 
of the jungle; but the offspring of man, 
entered upon a life that is eternal, and sub- 
ject to the hazards that beset men only, are 
to have parental solicitude and material sup- 
port while the parent has power to exercise 
these functions. Not until the hour of de- 
parting this world, should the parent impart 
his final blessing to his offspring. 



200 Human Occupation 

It need not be suggested here, that above 
the natural, there is a spiritual realm, and 
those who are lifted into its divine realities 
owe "all things to all men," or in other 
words the best a man has for the rising 
generation of any family of the whole com- 
munity is what he owes. But out of God's 
kindness He has created us also in the nat- 
ural world and in that there flow forth from 
parent to child both responsibility and love. 
It is on this basis that God first reckons 
with us. Having fixed by nature in us an 
instinct, having enabled us to love, and hav- 
ing given us the word of command, he cer- 
tainly does, and with reason, expect every 
parent to be a child protector, sustainer and 
teacher. Nor are we to be excused when 
our own are satisfied with things material. 
Under God we are to accompany them Into 
the realm of spirit nor quit our work in 
their behalf until called to enroll above. 
Then should our mantle fall on those by 
us led and qualified, since they are by us 
given birth. 

At the close of the nineteenth century 
and the opening of the twentieth we hear 
those eminently wise and good deploring 



Devotion to Family 201 

the fact that children are not given birth; 
or if they are, their birth is illegitimate or 
unwelcome, or both. The nations that suf- 
fer from this sin are more than one. They 
have a name and stenchful reputation in 
the earth. Their sin ever smoulders before 
God, while shame and curses, even from 
this world are heaped upon them. But the 
mother of this sin, the one which holds this 
one in her lap, is the sin of begetting chil- 
dren according to the flesh only. If children 
are to be born, they should be born of both 
flesh and faith. They should be given in 
answer to prayer. When they are thus 
given they are not only welcome, but what 
to do with them is known. It should not be 
said that the unpardonable sin is the deser- 
tion of children, and yet the word which 
has both wings and inspiration says "He 
that provideth not for his own is worse than 
an infidel" which seems to be the same, 
though uttered in different words, as to say 
"He who deserts his own children is worse 
than he who deserts God," Not in our age 
(and certainly in no previous age), does it 
satisfy God that we merely feed, clothe and 
shelter our children. That is a part of our 



202 Human Occupation 

parental work, but of all parts, that is the 
most purely animal. To do that, we are 
moved by instinct, unless our instinct is de- 
throned by depravity, and by instinct the 
things that crawl, that cleave the air, or 
crouch in the lair, are impelled to do as 
much. As man transcends all lower crea- 
tures, his functions also do, and whether or 
not parents have a pre-natal purpose in their 
children, they are bound to secure both in 
and for them the highest interests of Heav- 
en and earth. 

Some day, if the world stands, God will 
have need of our children. It is not to be 
supposed that God has done with this 
world. Ours is an age of human power, 
but God still lives, and in some not distant 
day His marvelous might will again be man- 
ifest. He will need the children of men. 
In fact His desire runs to and fro through 
all the earth today, seeking the sons of men 
who are valiant for His service and men of 
untarnished character, men of honest repute, 
men who are clean enough and dependent 
enough and full enough of faith to be used 
of God in the accomplishment of his high 
purposes — such men as Moses, whom God 



Devotion to Family 203 

used to emancipate his chosen people, and 
Joshua the conqueror of all that were before 
him. 

It will doubtless be recalled that God who 
has always used great men, never made a 
great man without having first made a will- 
ing parent. In most cases great men have 
been the offspring of parents, full of godli- 
ness and faith, who have sought consistently 
and with all their soul to secure in their 
children such qualities as God can use. We 
observe Abraham and Sarah, and Hannah 
the mother of Samuel, pleading with God 
that He give them children to serve in one 
way only, that was to serve to carry out 
God's wisdom in the earth. The parents 
of Moses, of John and of Jesus, of Wesley, 
and of Spurgeon were all in league with the 
Almighty to produce men of destiny. No 
earthly mind can know all the mothers who 
have wrought on their knees with God in 
behalf of their sons; no pen can record the 
tears that have fallen, or measure the an- 
guish of the mother hearts. God knows 
these mothers have been His help in time 
past. Their co-operation with Him has se- 
cured the truth, exalted the right, honored 



204 Human Occupation 

God and redeemed man. These sons of 
prayer have been the reformers, the trans- 
formers and the saviors of the world. When 
their fellow men shifted like the driven sand, 
they stood like the everlasting rocks. When 
others faltered and failed in faith, their 
faith and hope arose to Heaven; they con- 
quered in war, in letters, on land and on 
water. They have raised men up to Heaven 
and they have called compassion down from 
above. These were the sons of their pray- 
ing mothers. What hand rocks the cradle 
today? What is the deepest desire of the 
mother heart of our time? Let these ques- 
tions be answered, and the future is foretold. 
If, by the eye of God, young mothers can be 
seen in the earth today who desire above all 
things to rear children to God's help, those 
children will in due time come forth the 
conquering men of the future. If those 
mothers deeply despise fashion, frivolity, 
fortune and fame, if their hope and faith 
are single to God's glory and they desire 
children such as shall honor God, their chil- 
dren will be of that kind, for children are 
born of desire. Read the records of how 
God has dealt with his people and you will 



Devotion to Family 205 

be convinced. Those that expect nothing, 
gain nothing; those that pray for things of 
this world will to some extent reap the 
things of this world, but will reap to their 
sorrow, while those who are of the king- 
dom and for the kingdom will reap life and 
joy and consequences everlasting. 



14 



VIII 

WORKING FOR THE PUBLIC 

There is a realm of operations, which lies 
out of doors, which pertains, not to our- 
selves alone, or to our families only, but to 
the social structure as a whole. In it the 
volunteer may work for the state or for the 
church or he may act in a business capacity 
wholly his own, yet related to and for the 
service of the people in general. Wherever 
society is at all complex, and civilization is 
far advanced, we find a thousand forms of 
public business overshadowed by both the 
church and the state, and they all have their 
army of workers, who are supposed to be 
devoted to the interests of the public. 

This order of things is by no means new. 
There has been a public to serve ever since 
there has been even a faulty form of civiliza- 
tion. The most ancient monuments are 
themselves public works, and the hands that 
erected them were engaged in work for the 
public. The most remote men whose names 
206 



Working for the Public 207 

have gone on record were servants of the 
public, and on this account their imperish- 
able labors survive them. Even the records 
themselves, though graven on rock are the 
labors of men's hands and those men have 
to the public been her best servants. The 
public in all her history has had her ser- 
vants, willing or unwilling, and as they 
stand out to the view of the present age, 
many of them for their devotion to their 
trust and the right, compare most favorably 
with even the foremost men of the world's 
greatest age. 

Yet what know we of the past! The 
world is said to be getting better ; or, rather, 
preceding ages are regarded as worse than 
our own. If this be the case the men of 
the past, who have served the public with a 
high loyalty and an undying devotion, are 
few in comparison. They have been excep- 
tions to the generality of men, and they de- 
serve that their names be indelibly recorded 
on high for the contemplation of all succeed- 
ing generations. 

The chief concern of the present age 
should be with its own affairs ; and in pass- 
ing upon the public service of our time it 



208 Human Occupation 

might be observed, first, that there is an 
enormous amount of it. Society, in its initi- 
ative, had but one institution which men 
were charged to maintain— the family. 
And that, although it is a pillar of the pub- 
lic, is usually treated as of private concern. 
Those who form and perpetuate it do so 
with relation to themselves only and at their 
own volition as a rule. Consequently, we 
can conceive of a state of the race in which 
there was no public, and no public to serve. 
Yet, even then, those who had being, had 
obligation to the public of succeeding gen- 
erations of a most vital sort. We are told 
that the first man by folly not greater than 
that of other fathers, brought downfall upon 
the entire race. Of his sons, the one who 
admitted his obligations to the public, met 
with approbation while the one who denied 
his relations to others was driven abroad 
by the frown of God. If we regard the 
universe as a unit, it is easy to say there 
is no man who is not greatly indebted to the 
public. 

During the unfolding of the racial bud, 
new and essentially public institutions have 
been ordained. The state became a human 



Working for the Public 209 

necessity, and the church with divinely laid 
foundation has sprung into world wide 
greatness and has itself given existence to 
institutions without number for piety and 
learning. The public school has been called 
into prominence, and especially in the pres- 
ent century, institutions that we call private, 
are certainly and indispensably public, 
though not of public ownership. These insti- 
tutions have sprung into existence as vapors 
rise into the air, and fill the whole earth as 
crested clouds pile full the whole heavens. 
Every public institution has its company or 
army of public servants. Their hands turn 
the world's commerce, administer the 
schools and the churches, and exercise the 
functions of the governments of the world. 
The public servants of the world sit on 
thrones and in cells, wear crowns and 
shackles, bear arms and implements, and 
perform their duties wherever their lot falls 
in a thousand stations and in ten thousand 
forms. 

Every adult citizen of a civilized state is 
in some sense a public servant, though as 
yet not all have relinquished private support. 
In no age has there ever been such an appall- 



210 



Human Occupation 



ing army of public servants who are entirely 
dependent upon the public for support and 
who serve the public professionally. No at- 
tempt is made for a minute classification of 
public servants, but for convenience the fol- 
lowing original summary is offered: 



PUBLIC SERVANTS 



On 

Public « 
Support 

On 

Private 

Support 



Those who administer Government. 
Those who administer Religion. 
Those who administer Learning. 
^Those who give their labor. 



Public Carriers. 
Merchants. 
Producers. 
Professional Men. 



And their 
Employees. 



The above diagram is true to fact in this 
respect at least that it includes all adult 
men who are to any extent engaged. The 
savage, the idler and the man who produces 
only enough for home consumption, and 
does nothing else, affect the public very little, 
if at all, in a positive way. And yet they 
are held under responsibility to God, for 
they have been given at least one talent, 
and its appearance or disappearance must 
be accounted for. 



Working for the Public 211 

God may not have authorized all the hu- 
man governments that have sprung into 
selfish existence upon the earth, but in a 
social fabric so great, government is ad- 
missible, and for the protection of society 
government is necessary. Therefore, though 
faulty, God has honored human govern- 
ments; and He requests all servants of the 
public, not only to honor them, but to be 
subject to them; or come under the con- 
demnation of the government of God, which 
alone is universal, exact and finally just. 

He may not have authorized the public 
schools, but He has gladly accepted of them 
and honored them. They are at their best 
in harmony with many of His express com- 
mands, while they are at variance with 
none. Regarding them as instruments of 
the state, we are commanded to be subject 
to them, and as a means of subduing the 
earth and its occupants, the public school is 
in perfect acord with God's creative designs 
and his first command to men. 

The church He has ordained; has given 
it a divine commission from which it must 
not deviate. The primary call of the church 
is not to be in waiting against the coming 



212 Human Occupation 

of Christ or the call of death, but to faith- 
fully preach to the whole world the whole 
world's Savior. This may be done by what- 
ever means are authorized by the Holy 
Spirit, but this is the transcendent call of 
the church, and to it all other functions are 
secondary. There are most surely a great 
many other things which God will accom- 
plish in the mean time. He will perfect the 
church and the individual; He will refine 
the earth and exalt His own honor, but the 
church is ordained to preach Christ, the 
bread broken for the satisfying of the na- 
tions. 

These then, the state, the school and the 
church, constituting the three great and 
comprehensive public institutions of the 
age, are worthy of the most conscientious 
endeavor of all who are in any way at work 
for them. It generally goes as a matter of 
conscience that the ministers of religion 
must work as under the very eye of God. 
They enjoy a divine call, and the divine ap- 
proval in their work. They renounce all 
self and selfish interests; they devote them- 
selves to the cause for the good of the pub- 
lic; they go to any part of the world; they 



Working for the Public 213 

labor and live with any class or nationality 
of people, disregarding all compensation and 
aiming only to carry to. a successful consum- 
mation the interests with which God has 
charged them. With this understanding 
men and women have severed all the endear- 
ing ties of earth and all sources of private 
gain and have devoted themselves to the 
fulfillment of their call among the wild na- 
tions of men. They have been cut down 
and cast off, despised and exiled, but they 
have disregarded all rebuffs for the work's 
sake. Devoted to the interests of others, 
they have pressed again and again their 
heaven ordained work to a successful con- 
summation. They have seen nations trans- 
formed and made good in a generation, and 
all turn to them again and call them blessed. 
There may have been exceptions to this 
— ministers who have sought ease and lux- 
ury, home, friends, the surroundings of a 
ready made and Christianized civilization, 
with a salary to correspond. Men may hav§ 
rejected the call to frontier usefulness for 
the sake of these emoluments, but such is 
not the general character of the servants of 
the church, nor is such conduct approved 



214 Human Occupation 

in the church or out of it, in this world or 
that above. Those who know best the reali- 
ties of eternity would be quickest and loud- 
est in their condemnation of one who would 
resort to policy in the service of the church. 
In the school, however, though they are 
much the same, matters are regarded differ- 
ently. Though God should control fully 
there, as a matter of fact, salary usually con- 
trols. It is regarded as legitimate for the 
teacher to change her place for the sake of 
gain, to reject a call, if its attending profits 
are too small, and to turn from her profes- 
sion or specialty altogether if it prove hard, 
distasteful or unprofitable. Teachers seem 
not to hear a divine, decisive and undeniable 
call. They appear to rely on judgment their 
own. Personal attachments are not ig- 
nored, and as difficult as their work is, and 
as divine as is its nature, teachers (allowing 
exceptions) feel too little need of help from 
above. Some even go through the day with- 
out public or private prayer and presume to 
do the work of God without the help of God. 
They rely rather upon experience, the legal- 
ized text, and the arm of the state. This is 
not to be censured so much as it is to be 



Working for the Public 215 

pitied, for the work is the work of God, 
and, once asked, He would most certainly 
help. His cooperation would not only re- 
lieve the teacher, but it would give her suc- 
cess against odds. A teacher's religion may 
be very modest, very quiet, very inoffensive, 
but if a teacher would increase her efficiency 
tenfold, let her choose Jesus as her captain, 
her leader and lord. What I mean to say 
is that His Spirit will empower her; He 
will brood over the school and calm the 
tempest, He will work and none can hinder. 
Let God be your friend and reign in your 
breast and your success and happiness will 
come as day succeeds the night. 

We have observed that the ministers of 
religion and the ministers of learning are, 
or ought to be, under the commission and 
control of God. That the ministers of gov- 
ernment should be also, is both highly im- 
portant and perfectly evident. But here we 
are halted for a few considerations on the 
facts as they are, before going on to mention 
the condition that should be. In the first 
place, it is noticeable that when wars have 
ceased, plagues are stayed, and abundance 
crowns the land, statesmen (and I might 



216 Human Occupation 

almost say the people, too) seem to feel little 
need of God. Having forgotten Him, they 
disregard His interest in and authority over 
the state. When a nation is in war, is bleed- 
ing at every pore, is sorely distressed and 
confronting overthrow, it is not uncommon 
to know the officers are entreating God for 
wisdom and supernatural help. Families 
plead with God to strengthen and direct the 
arm of the state. Communities gather and 
raise their entreaties to Heaven for help. 
But when distress subsides and the abund- 
ance of the land is before the people for 
their possession, their actions, too often, are 
anything but consistent and becoming. They 
violate the laws and decrees of God; they 
deny that He has power over the state, or 
interest in its welfare; plunder, theft and 
graft in places high and low become current. 
Those who saw God's control sought in 
time of war, now see it denied. Officials 
lose their earnestness and sobriety, and their 
chief concern is to lay hold with hands 
where they may seize the most. 

It is noticeable in time of peace that the 
highest authority which ministers of govern- 
ment admit is the will of the people enacted 



Working for the Public 217 

into law. What God says never reaches 
their ears; what He has commanded they 
have quite forgotten, and should the trum- 
pets of Heaven announce again the ten im- 
perishable commands of God, many min- 
isters of government would not hear, for 
they are not listening for God's voice, or 
seeking His will. 

Again, those of the ministers of govern- 
ment who regard themselves as always loyal 
to the codified law of the land, if they are 
not themselves law breakers, and if they are 
not leading in raids and grafts and seizures 
on the public, are held in very great respect, 
and are believed to be even in advance of the 
age. Those who take this position that the 
laws on the statute must be obeyed meet 
strenuous opposition from their fellow of- 
ficials and from all who have more regard 
for self interests than they have for public 
interests. They may meet open favor with 
some of the people, but in the dark corridors 
and lobbies surrounding legislation, their 
political hearts are in imminent danger of 
being thrust through by the dagger of the 
self seeker. 

The gravity of this fault is not charge- 



218 Human Occupation 

able to the office holders and office seekers 
alone; it exists among the people of which 
they form a part, or it never could exist at 
all. What people want they are sometimes 
willing to take regardless of what laws ap- 
pear on the statutes. If a man, private or 
public, is bent on wickedness, law is only in 
his way. What he wants is contrary to the 
express will of God and the law of the land, 
yet he will set both aside for the purpose of 
thrusting in to the elbows his own insatiate 
desire. 

To know where authority lies and whence 
it comes is the first essential to good govern- 
ment. The source of authority may be 
briefly stated thus. The minister of govern- 
ment gets his authority from the law in 
statute; the statute gets its authority from 
the will of the people; the people get their 
authority from God. Individuals of all ages, 
all generations and in all parts of the world 
get their authority from God. No other 
authority is authority, for it is not con- 
sistent or accompanied with power. If from 
any other source, it is opposed to God, con- 
trary to the best interests of the people, and 
must perish; or, during its existence, be at 



Working for the Public 219 

war with God and all mankind. And since 
every statesman is first of all a man, there 
is a short cut for authority, viz. : direct from 
God. 

Any man for that matter is first of all a 
man. On that pedestal he is of God created 
and on that he must forever stand or sacri- 
fice his manhood. To whatever trust he 
may be called, he must carry to it his man- 
hood, his loyalty to right, which means 
loyalty to God. Should occasion arise that 
the will of the people thwarts the will of 
God, he is bound cnly by his loyalty to God. 
It does not follow that he must oppose the 
people or overthrow their will. He may 
perhaps better resign his trust with due ex- 
planation and seek the shadow of some flag 
that does acknowledge God and right. 

I digress to explain that the best inter- 
ests of a nation are always identical with 
the will of God. All of God's govern- 
mental provisions are for the highest good 
of all mankind. Should His will be done 
in the whole universe, as it some time will 
be, it would be found identical with the 
highest good of all His creatures. And the 
highest good of His creatures is followed by 



220 Human Occupation 

the highest happiness of His creatures. But 
some nations do not know this, nor do they 
know what His will really is. They desire 
self government, which is entirely right. 
God has granted that. But government that 
is not good for the people and their inter- 
ests is opposed to God and His interest, 
whether that government be by the majority 
or the minority; by the people themselves 
or by some individual. 

There are to every one three ways by 
which he may certainly know what is God's 
will in government. 

I. His recorded word, summarized in 
the commandments. 

II. A conveyance through conscience 
expressed in the word "ought." 

III. The higher interests of the gov- 
erned as opposed to their selfish desires. 

In regard to these three sources of knowl- 
edge of God's will, it may be said that they 
always agree. They are reliable anywhere 
in the universe, and action in their accord 
is the only action that is acceptable in this 
world or in Heaven. It is, therefore, the 
only action that can stand. Action in their 
accord will usually stand, though opposed 



Working for the Public 221 

by many selfish and temporary interests. And 
if it does not at first stand, if it is cast to the 
ground and stamped under foot, it will rise 
again, come forth in newness of form and 
at length meet universal triumph. It should 
be borne in mind that the original, funda- 
mental and necessary laws of good govern- 
ment, as laid down by God, are in operation 
throughout the universe today, so far as we 
know, except in the hearts of some of the 
human race. With the exception of our 
world, they always have operated and al- 
ways will. The disobedience of our race 
may be said to be a sectional or local insur- 
rection, but it will soon be over and no law 
but the will of God will be known in the 
universe. 

Our wrong-doing, public or individual 
may all be expressed in the word selfishness. 
There is but one class of public servants ap- 
proved in this world — the class that desire 
the world to please God. No other class can 
have power, or permanence. No other class 
can please God or the people. No other 
class can escape eternal war with two 
worlds. Since the will of God is the only 
code that is good for everybody, and since 

15 



222 Human Occupation 

everybody's good is the will of God, to 
fight against the combination is to place self 
interest against the universe. More than 
that, such a fight is not only against God 
and the interests of all people except the 
selfseeker, — it is entirely and unalterably 
against every interest oi the selfseeker. 
The man who would plunder the public and 
pocket the spoils corrupts himself, his fam- 
ily, his government, national and uni- 
versal. He punctures the institution erect- 
ed for the defense and safety of himself 
and children. He exposes his own belong- 
ings to attack and invites everybody else to 
plunder him. The man who stabs the public 
bleeds himself. 

Were God's will sought by all the world, 
government w r ould be greatly simplified. 
The executive arm might be lopped off, the 
judicial function would be eased, and legis- 
lation would find a haven of rest. Instead 
of being a world at war, it would be a para- 
dise of perpetual progress. So long as the 
race has wrestled for possession in this world 
every family ought to be domiciled in a man- 
sion; every desert, every swamp, and all 
waste places should have been subdued and 



Working for the Public 223 

rendered a paradise, and the world should 
have been fully occupied. God ordered this 
some thousands of years ago. In the execu- 
tion of His will, the race would long since 
have been established in every continent and 
sea, and would today be intact and more 
nearly universal than it is; but the time, the 
mind and the arm have been employed in 
war, which war constitutes human history. 
And now, after six thousand years of hu- 
man exertion, we reap mainly blood, ashes 
and perdition. 

The misdirection of the race is not charge- 
able alone to statesmen; it is recorded 
against all public servants alike, or in pro- 
portion as they have misled in public trust. 
Sometimes the conduct of the seer has closed 
the vision of the race and God and His will 
have been eclipsed. Sometimes public teach- 
ers have cast up the mire of doubt to such 
an extent as to obscure the vision of all and 
the very path of progress. Sometimes po- 
litical leaders, more masterly than others, 
have plunged the world into political up- 
heaval and for centuries have held the 
thought of the world on impending events 
or the stress of the times to the exclusion 



334 Human Occupation 

of all progress and profit. Such periods of 
darkness are accompanied by confusioa; all 
bearings are lost and perfidy, no longer re- 
strained, roams the earth with a high hand. 
Periods of this kind, though they have often 
come upon and reversed the progress of the 
race, are chargeable usually to corruption 
at the fountain head — to that body of teach- 
ers or public ministers which should repre- 
sent and reveal God. For when the sun is 
obscured the night and its terrors reign. 

To the man serving the public in any ca- 
pacity whatever, one sentence of four plain 
words should state his obligation. Work 
for the public. That does not mean seek 
employment by the public. It is intended 
to mean, If you are employed in work for 
the public, work for the interests of the pub- 
lic. Let the interests of the public be yours 
to secure. Consult not your own ease, your 
own inclination, or your own profit, but with 
all faculties alert, serve the highest interests 
of the public. In most cases this is what the 
public wants; in all cases it is what God 
wants. And if your highest interests are to 
be consulted, and of course they are, they 
will be infinitely enhanced by loyalty to the 



Working for the Public 225 

interests of the public. Many statesmen and 
servants of the state have spilled their blood 
for the honor of the state; but, with the 
ebbing of the blood, came the exaltation of 
the soul. It is devotion to right, mellowed 
by love, with zeal according to knowledge 
that the world needs today. 



IX 



WORKING FOR THE INDIVIDUAL 

Only God has arbitrary rights in the in- 
dividual human being. If man is to act 
to affect his fellowman at all, he must affect 
him for his good. The only highly appro- 
priate motive one can have in affecting an- 
other is to secure his highest good. What- 
ever motives men may have had in the past, 
or may have now, this is the only motive 
God will sanction or that men will respect. 
To reduce men, to embarrass them, to af- 
fect them in any way but for their good is 
not only to oppose God but to meet eventual 
defeat. It is, therefore, not worth our while 
to consider any operations in behalf of the 
individual man, except to ask and answer, 
what is for his highest good? We have 
often listened to a delineation of man's 
chief blessings. These when summed up 
constitute man's highest good. 

First to be mentioned, as it is also the first 
to be enjoyed, is life itself. Whatever life 
286 



Working for the Individual 227 

is, it has its rise in the holy of holies of the 
home, and, blessed of God, it never meets 
with extinction. It undergoes changes, but 
should, as it expands and ripens into beauty, 
power and perfection. It mounts up with 
wings as the eagle and finally fills the uni- 
verse. While in this world, it is capable of 
defeat, and downfall, and of woe unspeak- 
able. The existence of the defeated can 
hardly be called life; it is more appropri- 
ately termed death; and even death, it is 
said, may be eternal. Man's chief blessing 
is life. 

The second blessing for which men 
struggle, although it is not second in im- 
portance, is comfort and security of body. 
This temple of the soul, the body, although 
often while in use racked by pain, is en- 
titled to consideration. It is not to be en- 
slaved; it is not to be goaded to the limit 
of endurance; it is not to be deprived of 
food, rest, shelter or protection. It is as 
much entitled to the light of the sun as the 
mind is to revelation. It has no seat in 
Heaven, but, being dismissed, should go to 
the grave in honor. The creation called the 
body, without abuse, will stand an enormous 



228 Human Occupation 

amount of hard work and will bear with 
comfort the ever enlarging and ever more 
glorious soul. Abuse will, in the end, kill; 
but before the body will be resigned to 
death it will respond with many murmurs 
and loud complaints, with petitions and de- 
mands, all of which reminders we call pain. 
Intemperance is the one thorn that the flesh 
cannot endure. Let this be imposed in any 
form to any great extent and the body's 
usefulness is gone. It will use all its time 
and strength in retaliation so long as the 
soul has feeling, but its decline is precipitous 
and its end certain. The man, who, when 
the labor of the day is done, can recline 
at home on his pillowed couch, surrounded 
by his pious family, and feel not a pang or 
a physical pain, is in the full enjoyment of 
one of His highest gifts. 

But a gift higher than physical ease is 
ease of mind. Man's mind must be satisfied 
with its own conduct ; must be at peace with 
the family, the neighbor, all men, God and 
the universe. Not one wave of trouble 
must roll across man's peaceful breast. No 
fear, no remorse, no dread, no hate, no envy, 
no discord — the soul must be in harmony 
with all things good, and resigned to fact. 



Working for the Individual 229 

God's eternal laws, the origin of which 
antedates that of man, in full detail should 
have been subscribed to. To live on a world 
with a quivering, treacherous crust and a 
stormy, threatening atmosphere, he must be 
resigned. He must be ready at any moment 
to see all that he calls his own swept into 
oblivion or swallowed up by Mother Nature. 
He must be reconciled to his residence in 
this world, or, if the death chariot is or- 
dered, to respond at any time to the call to 
citizenship above. An accepted and settled 
creed, an alliance with God, and citizenship 
in His kingdom, all of which are for us here 
and now, constitute one of man's chief bless- 
ings. 

Many are the secondary blessings which 
summed up with these constitute man's 
highest good. But when a man has the gift 
of life, a comfortable body and an estab- 
lished soul, what needs he more? These in- 
sure man's highest good; they come from a 
common source, and can come from that 
source only. They are the gift of God. 
That man has power over his own life, has 
not even been presumed. He has neither 
power to take it up or to terminate it. He 



230 Human Occupation 

may throw off the body, but to suicide is 
but to move. He has a great deal to do 
about securing the comfort of the body and 
the repose and security of the soul, but these 
are the gifts of God and man can secure 
them only as he complies with God's laws 
and takes them as a gift from above. 

To lead a man to all things good is to 
lead him to God. To lead him to God is to 
lead first to Jesus Christ; for, "No man 
cometh unto the Father but by Me." There- 
fore, it is not too much to say that man 
finds God and his highest good when he 
finds The Christ. In comparison with find- 
ing Him, the discovery of worlds is as noth- 
ing. He is the door to future happiness; 
He is the gate to Heaven. To sit at His feet 
is to learn of the world's greatest teacher; 
to associate with Him is to be the friend of 
the universal Judge and King. 

Christ is for the individual. It was for 
the redemption of the individual that He 
descended from Glory. While here He gave 
every attention to individuals, but contended 
very little with governments. He estab- 
lished no state, although urged to do so. He 
organized no crusades and instituted no re- 



Working for the Individual 231 

forms; but in the individual he encouraged 
always the transformation and perfection 
of character possible for sinful man only. 
God sees us singly and in all our relations; 
His appeal is ever to the individual. Christ's 
ministrations were to individuals of every 
existing class. It was for the individual He 
gave His life ; and, if there had been but one 
lost soul in all the universe, He would have 
left the ninety and nine and the Paradise 
above to go after that one. Heaven will not 
be filled with classes, cliques or creeds. 
People will not go in there by parties, na- 
tions or even by families ; but will be passed 
upon and admitted individually. God seeks 
us with greatest diligence, but He sorts and 
passes upon us with the utmost care. His 
like cannot be found among the rulers or 
teachers of earth. Their effort is to classify 
men, lump them off, deal with quantities of 
them; while His infinite care goes to every 
individual. It is also the individual who 
serves back to Christ. Nations have tried 
to serve as a unit, but their efforts must fail. 
Even their attempts are but the combined ef- 
forts of commanding individuals. In fact 
the state is but a faulty and humane institu- 



232 Human Occupation 

tion created by and for the use of man, the 
individual. 

Christ never exalts society or the state 
until He first exalts one by one the members 
individually. The very beginnings of His 
church upon earth was the careful selection 
by Himself of a few individuals. The over- 
throw of Paganism and the ascendency of 
Christianity in the Roman Empire came in 
a few centuries during which time He was 
Spirit-filling various citizens of that empire. 
Gloom clouded the middle centuries of the 
Christian dispensation, not because the light 
of the world was extinguished, but because 
the social zenith had dropped its individual 
stars. The world never has light unless 
men, individually, being filled from above, 
let their borrowed light shine. When men 
are all aglow the world is illuminated ; when 
individuals are righteous the nation re- 
joices. It is then there is progression in the 
world and the race is exalted. 

If it be so true that the hope of our race 
lies in the regeneration of its individuals ; if 
Christ, our Lord, has commissioned His dis- 
ciples to go forth into all the world to 
preach the gospel to "every creature/' that 



Working for the Individual 233 

is personally, it is obligatory upon him who 
is commissioned to at once set his atten- 
tion upon the individual, remembering that 
what the child is to the parent, every human 
being is to God. They are dearer to Him 
than the organ of sight is to man, and He 
would see the sun fall from the heavens 
rather than give over one individual to be 
lost. 

Strange to say, the human creature does 
not naturally come to God, not even when 
aware of his own nature and the terms 
on which he may be received. His nature 
shrinks; he falters, and in some cases he 
is even at enmity with God. It is therefore 
not surprising that winning souls is an art, 
an heavenly art, one that has been taught 
since Christ came, and one that for require- 
ments and nature is of all arts the most di- 
vine. It is, indeed an art that no one can 
acquire, no one can perform, in which no 
one can succeed alone. The one way in 
which men may qualify for greatly helping 
their fellowmen to God is by being gov- 
erned, if not occupied by the Holy Spirit of 
God. He can so possess man's whole be- 
ing as to make him an agent for the high- 



234 Human Occupation 

est good of other men. This understood, 
there are certain lessons for those to learn, 
who would be highly useful to their fellows 
in the flesh. These we will now consider. 

I believe the first fact that should be deep- 
ly impressed upon the winner of souls is the 
true state of the unsaved man. There is 
only one book that is authority on this sub- 
ject, and the authority of that Book through 
ages of storm and darkness has never been 
impeached. It is easy to ascertain and to 
believe its teachings now and here, so it will 
be then and there. But to take advantage of 
those teachings, to secure the everlasting 
salvation, to escape the vortex of destruc- 
tion — these are things that should be 
brought to recognition before one soul will 
be deeply moved in behalf of another. 

Again, to be highly useful one must en- 
throne Christ in his own heart. "Out of the 
fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh," 
and "Without Me ye can do nothing" ; also 
because "I can do all things through Christ 
which strengthened me." Christ is the 
force that has regenerated this world thus 
far. If any other force has had a similar 
effect, it is not on the records of God or man. 



Working for the Individual 235 

Christ has lived among men in a visible 
form. He does this no more, but He, spir- 
itually, is borne about in the bodies of His 
saints. Their bodies are the living temples 
of the living Christ. Enthroned in their 
hearts, He speaks through their vocal or- 
gans; He sees through their eyes. He en- 
dures with them, He suffers with them, He 
shines out of their faces. It is not more evi- 
dent that God is in nature, or that He is in 
Heaven, than it is that He is in His own 
people. This indwelling Christ qualifies His 
servants to go into any part of the world 
and help men. "x\ny part," may be safely 
said, for, being so filled, His servants fear 
neither the beasts of the jungle, nor the sav- 
age in his hut. He goes forth conquering 
against all odds, and threats and torture 
cannot turn Him back. 

Another thing that the Christian must do 
before ever starting out to highly influence 
his fellow man, is that he raise his own life 
entirely above suspicion. That is, he must 
not only abstain from evil, but from the very 
appearance of it. This does not mean that 
he must never stumble, falter nor fall ; or that 
he must be above the possibility of attack by 



236 Human Occupation 

the Tempter. It does mean, however, that 
what is wrong and everybody knows to be 
wrong, he must not willingly do, or even 
appear to do. Otherwise, he not only ex- 
cludes God's spirit from his life, but by the 
same act he loses the confidence, respect and 
esteem of men. He might better go on his 
knees all day than by some forbidden act 
part company with both God and man. God 
is very desirous that Christians should so 
act as to rightly represent Him in the world, 
and yet, what He requires is not more than 
the world itself requires. 

Another great conclusion the Christian 
worker must come to is that the argument 
both of his living and his teaching must 
honor, justify and extol God. One of the 
most lamentable facts of the age is that 
men do not honor God or revere Him, or 
even make it a part of their plans to do so. 
Men's calculations include operations in 
finance, in society, in the home and even in 
the disposition of the decorations of their 
persons. Men lay plans for the salvation 
of others, for the extension of the church; 
they plan and labor and pray to uplift and 
honor their children and their municipality, 



Working for the Individual 23H 

but deliberate and extensive plans to honor 
God have seldom originated with men. It 
would be an easy thing so to plan; and if 
men would try such plans, God would honor 
their efforts. For no one knows more sen- 
sibly than does He, that the bloody cross 
and the crucified Christ are in our time both 
trampled under the feet of men. Men to- 
day dare even to criticise God, His works 
and His word. At what He has done they 
hurl contempt and at what He would do 
they hurl derision. It is not man's office 
to say what God should do to the people of 
the present century. Egyptian plagues, 
Sodomic fire, and the visitations of the day 
of crucifixion would bring men to their 
knees and in a sense would honor God; but 
no doubt in the end His honor will tower 
higher under his own plan, — that of suffer- 
ing the tares to grow with the wheat unto 
the culmination of the present dispensation. 
The momentous realities of religion would 
be felt more by the world today if they were 
felt more by His humble children. If we 
honor Him, He will honor and help us. 
And "ye are my witnesses saith the Lord." 
I have mentioned the extreme importance 

16 



238 Human Occupation 

of our being close to and qualified of God if 
we are to benefit our fellow men. Now I 
wish to notice that it is almost as important 
to be close to the people. Not in the sense 
that we should cooperate with them in 
any sins, or give or compromise a single 
principle. But we should know the realities 
of the world, the trials, the temptations, the 
heart aches, the weariness; the hungering 
and thirsting of the sinful, the emptiness of 
the Godless life, and the fact that men are 
ruined and forever lost if they are out of 
Christ. The scholastic clergyman, unused 
to toil or business, or the trials of the people 
of affairs, may wonder why he ministers to 
many empty pews while millions of people 
are just outside the walls. He languishes in 
his labor and tires for the scenes of the 
seaside. He has mastered the books, but he 
has not mastered men. If he should com- 
pare himself with the men to whom he min- 
isters, or would minister, or if he would 
compare himself with Jesus, the great Sa- 
vior of men, he would at once be struck 
with the amazing difference. His own life 
by night and day is among downy pil- 
lows and remote antiquities, while Jesus and 



Working for the Individual 239 

other men are men of sorrow and ac- 
quainted with grief. Mingled sweat and dust 
soil their persons, and at night they have no 
where to lay their head. Men contend with 
tKe seas and the winds, and what is stronger, 
with passions, pride and penury. Oh, the 
toil of the world ! How it covers the person 
with its dust, fills the eyes with its smoke, 
the ears with its roar, and the soul with ev- 
erything but God and love. Six days in 
the wear and tear of the world and men and 
women are exhausted and almost slipping 
off into Hell. The day of rest comes and 
the mother gathers her little ones together 
and says, "Come husband, let us go to the 
church, and hear the message of love, or we 
will be lost eternally and our children after 
us." The weary, soul-starving man rises 
and they go. They are welcome; they are 
wanted; they are shown a well cushioned 
and comfortable free seat. They hear good 
music; everything is elevating and to their 
taste. But the sermon, the very part they 
have been looking forward to, the part they 
most need, is neither to their taste nor for 
their poor lives. They have brought their 
starving souls to the church. There they sit 



2-iO Human Occupation 

and wait for the bread of life and the water 
that men shall drink of and forever live. 
The minister arises ; he presides with marked 
elegance and grace, but the remoteness of 
his thought and the passiveness of his man- 
ner soon lull them and they fall helplessly 
asleep, much to their lasting remorse. They 
go home still lost, still hungry and more 
ashamed for coming. The preachers of 
power in this or any other age have been 
men from the ranks; men acquainted with 
men and affairs: men who have felt the 
pains and toils of the race. That class has 
had both power and prominence from 
Moody back to Moses. Jesus himself, the 
teacher of teachers, and the master of minds, 
was a man of sorrow, of labor, of tempta- 
tion and of unspeakable grief. 

In order for the preparation of the one 
who would go forth to the sacrifice and do 
and dare for his fellow men, I have men- 
tioned the necessity of the accompanying 
presence and the commission of Christ, of 
elevating one's own life above suspicion, of 
honoring God before the gaze of mankind 
and of sympathy with fellow men. Xow 

r:e remain faith, hope and charity, or 



Working for the Individual 241 

love, all of which are essential, but the 
greatest of all is love. So natural is it to 
suppose that all who go forth laboring to 
bring men to Christ should be full of faith, 
it seems almost absurd to mention it. Cer- 
tainly no one would be accepted in this 
calling unless he believed that God is, that 
He loves and that He saves mankind. But 
more than that is necessary to make men 
successful heralds of the Gospel. They must 
believe the Bible throughout, not merely in 
theory, but it should be a living reality to 
them. Such faith as we find in the patri- 
archs, the prophets, the apostles should be 
found in them. 

We have ample evidence that without 
such faith men accomplish little. They sel- 
dom even begin to labor for others. Where 
men believe there is no conscious connection 
between God and man, they seldom do any- 
thing for the elevation of the individual. 
They are content to seek their own com- 
fort and happiness, and suffer others to do 
the same. By them there is little importance 
attached to the soul-saving work. They fail 
to believe and therefore they fail to work. 
But when men have faith, all things are 



242 Human Occupation 

changed. Having faith they also have life, 
desire and courage. They are possessed of 
vitality and power and at once become con- 
querors in the strife. It is the Christian's 
imperishable faith in God that has impelled 
him to conquer the world. With it be- 
lievers have lost their dread of all things; 
they have traversed deserts and swamps; 
they have crossed lofty mountains and the 
broad seas; they have entered the fastnesses 
of the savage and the palaces of kings, and 
they have in all undertakings become more 
than conquerors. Men cannot do good with- 
out faith; they cannot even begin to do 
good, or to be good, without faith. The 
faith of which I speak, is simply confidence 
in God. 

Hope has its place and its importance. 
It seems very essential that we should be 
full of hope. But hope springs from certain 
causes and cannot obtain in the human 
bosom unless it is founded on reasons. 
Hope and faith are not always yokefellows. 
Because men are full of faith regarding a 
given subject, they are not always full of 
hope regarding that subject. Xoah fully 
believed that God would deluge the world, 



Working for the Individual 243 

and consequently he could not hope that He 
would not do so. Jeremiah fully believed 
that the sins of Israel would overthrow the 
empire, and for that very reason he could 
not hope that the empire would survive. 
The men who are shaking their heads to- 
day though saying little about the future 
greatness of America, are those who know 
best that God hates sin in high places and 
cares more for the welfare of its subjects 
than He does for the perpetuity of any form 
of government whatsoever. The hope that 
characterizes the Christian is the hope of 
the ultimate ascendency of good; the ulti- 
mate triumph of Christ, His kingdom and 
His righteousness. 

Now in the last place I wish to mention 
the greatest of all the known powers with 
which a man must be armed if he is to do 
aught for the uplifting of his fellow man. 
That great possession, greater than faith, 
greater than hope, greater than knowledge 
or tact or money, that greatest power in the 
world is love. Love is a thing that melts, 
subdues, and moves men as nothing else can 
do. Love cannot be resisted. God's Son is 
love, and while men criticise Moses and re- 



2±± Human Occupation 

pel Paul, they find no fault in Him. If 

there is love in one man's heart for another 
man, the subject as well as the object is 
blessed and both men are by it lifted Heav- 
enward together. Without love man never 
is at his best. He may be surrounded by 
civilization, he may be in possession of 
great riches, he may command much knowl- 
edge, be gifted in the arts of war and of 
peace, but he never is a full man or a good 
man without love. Love complements all 
his other possessions. The more he has in 
addition to love, the greater he becomes be- 
cause of his love. Money has its power — 
money is in power at the present time — but 
notwithstanding both facts, love is the only 
thing that will ever be fit or able to con- 
quer and control this world. Love can do 
this and love will do it. That quiet, once 
despised Kingdom of Love that emanated 
from the bosom of God and was manifest 
in the life of Jesus, will surely spread until 
it fills the world entirely. The Kingdom of 
darkness and hatred shall be utterly 
scourged off the stage of existence, or if it 
has existence at all, it must have it in its 
own appointed place within its own bounds. 



Working for the Individual 245 

The love I extol, advocate and here with 
all that that is in me recommend, is the 
love of God. That is, it is the same in kind 
and substance as the love which character- 
izes God, and when it possesses the heart, 
we seem to be one with God. We love men 
as God does ; not because there are possibili- 
ties in them, not because of what they might 
be, but because of their state and their be- 
ing. The love of God never prompts us to 
despise anybody. On the contrary, it does 
prompt one to lift up the fallen from the 
gutter, to give out our substance to the 
poor, our knowledge to the needy, and our 
love to all. It, and it only, qualifies us to 
give ourselves for the salvation of the 
world. This is why love is supremely im- 
portant. The world-saver, the successful 
reformer, the effective missionary or minis- 
ter must be filled with and impelled by this 
love of God. God's Word asserts it and 
history confirms it over and over that love 
is what makes men great and gives them 
usefulness in this world. The love that 
comes down from Heaven ; the love of God, 
it is beyond all question the most power- 
ful and the most useful asset that mortal 



246 Human Occupation 

man can acquire in this life or the life to 
come. 

A Christian should not only feel within 
him this surging, throbbing love for men, 
but other people should be able to perceive 
it within him. It should reach his conduct 
and make him give out to the church not 
only, but to the poor, and to everybody. 
He should act just as the Bible says he 
must. Until he does this the world will not 
believe in him; and when he has done this 
and does it habitually the world never fails 
to believe in him. They respond to his 
manifest love and their response reaches 
God, if rightly reflected back by God's man 
and representative. 

It must be evident too that it would be in- 
appropriate for God to give man any great 
degree of faith until that man was well filled 
with love and that love was manifest to all. 
Let a man be a fit and unfailing representa- 
tive of God and God can and will do won- 
ders for him, even before the world. So 
love is not only the greatest thing but is, in 
a very important sense, the first thing. 

It is in order and our delight next to 
mention some of the things that one man 



Working for the Individual 247 

can do for another after he has his prepara- 
tion and has made his start aright. I men- 
tion first a matter which I fear has in most 
ages been much overlooked but which meets 
great favor and success when it is practiced, 
and which is, by the Bible, recommended 
and repeatedly commanded. It is the sim- 
ple matter of materially helping others. The 
people of this world who do not need help 
are more rare than AJpine peaks or vault- 
ing suns. They are not to be found among 
the poor, or among the rich, certainly not 
among the wise and not even among the 
self-satisfied. All men may not know their 
needs, but all men need help. When we 
look upon those who have the most, we 
think they need the most. When we look 
upon those who have the least, we think 
they have need of the most. Not all 
men need money, not all men need food, 
not all need opportunity, but all are in need 
of some kind. 

While it is a fact that the most we need 
we draw from God, and that depending on 
Him we can get along somewhat independ- 
ently of others; it is not God's plan that 
we should be independent entirely or even 



248 Human Occupation 

try to be; but that we should all be helpers 
one of another. Where all men are devoted 
to the interests of one another, the princi- 
ples and operations of the Kingdom of God 
are very nearly realized, and the loving 
heart of God is highly satisfied. Man then 
holds his true station but a little lower than 
the angels. The true benevolence of one- 
half of the human family uplifts the other 
half. And in the presence of this fact I re- 
assert what the Lord of men and the 
Teacher of teachers asserted nearly two 
thousand years ago, that, "it is more blessed 
to give than to receive." For reasons that 
are not evident to all, it does a man more 
good to give a dollar well than to receive a 
dollar, even one that he has earned, is en- 
titled to, and is in need of. Godly giving 
is followed by a train of consequences. The 
first measure of reward is happiness; the 
next is satisfaction, both subjective, but 
God-given. Next, your eyes are feasted on 
the beaming face and rising welfare of the 
one you have helped; next all things in the 
world seem to befriend you and stinginess 
with darkness are followed by liberality 
and light. Your spiritual vision sweeps 



Working for the Individual 249 

through Heaven; you behold joy among 
angels, and satisfaction on the countenance 
of the Most High God. What the universe 
was, it is no longer because you have com- 
menced to give. "If thou draw out thy soul 
to the hungry ; and satisfy the afflicted soul ; 
then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy 
darkness be as the noon day." Isaiah 58: 
10, 12. 

What takes place in the soul receiving the 
aid is not so definable. If he was hungry, 
his hunger is satisfied and he rises up to call 
you blessed. He is, if truly helped, started 
on his way rejoicing with a new hope and 
a fonder heart. He now believes that, al- 
though this is a hard, selfish and unfeeling 
world, there is one true soul who has time 
and grace to stoop to him with a helping 
hand. There is a rising love within his 
heart and he feels like being more and bet- 
ter than ever before. The world has been 
good to him and he wishes to respond to 
that goodness. Wise words and unfalter- 
ing example are before him and up he 
mounts from aspiration to victory. He 
finds himself in possession of things to give 
and in turn becomes the benefactor of his 



250 Human Occupation 

race, — raised by a little care to be God's 
man in the world. 

Almost any one can be a giver of money, 
it has been said. Yet what is more plenti- 
ful even than money is not so easily im- 
parted. I refer to Divine Wisdom. Divine 
Wisdom is as abundant as the air we breathe. 
It is given of God, comes without money 
and without price. Money cannot buy it; 
man cannot bargain for it. It has to be 
sought for with diligence and exact com- 
pliance with God's formula; but when thus 
sought it is for everyone free and in abun- 
dance. It is all around us and comes in 
like air into a vacuum, if admitted. ''Wis- 
dom crieth at the door," amazing fact ! 
Few people in comparison open wide the 
door and invite to supremacy in their lives 
this divine wisdom. Men who are poor 
might invite it and become rich; men who 
are wretched, by admitting it, might be- 
come happy; men who are weak, by pos- 
sessing the wisdom from above might be- 
come a tower of strength; those who are 
without purpose or hope in life, with God's 
wisdom ruling them, would have a future 
full of light and greatness. Yet men cast 



Working for the Individual 251 

down their faces, go with closed and leaden 
hearts, without hope, happiness, fortune or 
fame, because they go without wisdom. 
Christ maintains that this wisdom is for 
men if they seek it — seek it first and seek it 
diligently. But if everything else is ad- 
mitted to the life and this ignored, men 
abide in darkness and perish in want. 

There is no greater work we can do for 
the individual than to prevail upon him to 
cast all else out for the sake of making place 
for this abundant wisdom. Men seldom dis- 
cern it for themselves. Strange as it may 
seem, men go through the sum of life, and, 
unaided, die void of Wisdom. Whole com- 
munities sit forever in darkness; even gen- 
erations of people go down from the plat- 
form of time with little suspicion of the 
transforming power of Divine Truth. 
Those who tell the story of the human fam- 
ily leave us to believe that for centuries to- 
gether, the world has sat in darkness amid 
a reign of terror with hardly a glimpse of 
God or His truth, have died and gone down 
like falling leaves without this life giving 
truth and almost without knowledge of 
mankind. But when, perchance, a man has 



g52 Human Occupation 

shut out the tide of his times, and the world 
clamor from his ears, and has sought God's 
wisdom, all other things good have been 
added to him. Then does he impress his 
generation. Then do knowledge and peace 
and power spring forth in the land. Then 
does the empire flourish and then there goes 
on record the history of a Golden Age. 

This wisdom is in itself all sufficient. It 
comes down from God, and, if given full 
possession of the man. his life is taken care 
of daily no matter what are the emergencies. 
So there is no higher ministry from man to 
man than to unfold the unspeakable riches 
of Divine Truth, the essence of which is 
Christ. This seems to me to be the sum of 
our ministry to man. When we have done 
what we can for his physical well-being, 
there remains this that can be done for the 
exaltation of his soul. Manifestly, this 
twofold ministry is not commonly under- 
taken in these days. Too often our good 
ministrations are not in both ways to the 
entire need of the man. Let us look upon 
our neighbor and regard him as we would 
ourselves. Let us in cooperation with 
Heaven, plan to minister to his entire need 



Working for the Individual 253 

and live not unto ourselves but unto all 
men — knowing that as angels live and as 
we are to live in Heaven, so we should be- 
gin to live here, that His Kingdom may 
come and His will be done on earth as it is 
done in Heaven. 



17 



X 

WORKING FOR GOD 

It would not be appropriate to close a 
comment on the offices of man without men- 
tioning that highest work to which man 
has ever been called, that of working for 
his God. It is a work that does not always 
fall to the lot of the most eminent men or 
to men of the most learning. Whom He 
will God chooses for this work, and it often 
occurs that out of the mouths of "babes and 
sucklings" and people of lowly origin He 
perfects His own praise. 

It may be truthfully remarked that work- 
ing for the highest good of fellow man is 
working for God. Also working for self- 
support, for family support, or for the wel- 
fare of the public, is working for God. All 
work that is right and good, that tends to 
subdue and beautify the earth, to improve 
the creations on the earth, and especially 
man, is, in a sense, work for God. It com- 
plies with His commands and ever carries 
254 



Working for God 255 

the work of creation to a higher state of 
perfection. To this end, no kind word or 
act or motive ever falls fruitlessly to the 
ground, but is a limpid drop in the current 
that bears all things on to unmeasured per- 
fection. God so - regards it. 

There is, however, a work for God which 
is primarily in His behalf. A work in which 
man becomes God's agent and representa- 
tive. Man becomes God's ambassador. He 
is as one sent from the throne of God to 
the human race, as it is, to speak the words 
and do the works of God as bidden, what- 
ever they may be. We are very familiar 
with how among the empires of man one 
government sends a representative, agent, 
or ambassador, to another government. 
This is a common thing now and has been 
in practice for many centuries. Even that 
is a high calling and a high office to accept- 
ably fill. When the United States govern- 
ment first came into possession of the Phil- 
ippine Islands, which lie far at sea in the 
Pacific, the President was ever anxious that 
all his men sent to those far off islands 
should rightly represent our government. 
He wished to deal with the people there in 



256 Human Occupation 

a kindly manner, impressing them with the 
benevolent nature of our government; yet 
they must be treated firmly that our power 
and determination might be fully appre- 
ciated. So God through his ambassadors 
would impress upon man the entirety of His 
nature, His government and His intentions. 
His real relations, the ones in which He de- 
sires to hold the sons of earth, are not those 
of king and subject; of lord and servant, 
but those close and endearing relations of 
Father and children. And this paternal re- 
lation is not only such as we see illustrated 
throughout the wide range of animate cre- 
ation, it is higher and stronger than any we 
know. The lioness roams and roars through 
the wild night and the terrified wilderness, 
seeking again the young so recently stolen 
from her lair. The mother bird fills the 
lane with calling because some base and cast 
down serpent has raided her nest and scat- 
tered, if it has not devoured, her young. 
But God looks forth from the Father's 
house upon His world of rational, self-will- 
ing children, who have not only been scat- 
tered abroad, but who are loath to return. 
He invites their return ; He pleads for their 



Working for God 257 

return; He commands their return. We are 
(and He so regards us) a fugitive and prod- 
igal race. Not heeding the tears of Heaven, 
we are not only in our sins and our conse- 
quent sufferings; we are faithless and in 
doubt. The outstretched arms of our 
Father and His entreating look are ever for 
us, but His motive is gainsaid and the world 
remains away. 

God has sent but one agent or mediator 
direct from His throne in Heaven to the 
world. That was Jesus the Christ, sent 
nearly two thousand years ago. He was 
the most eminent personage that has ever 
lived upon the earth. He was also the most 
faithful witness God has ever had among 
men. He was in reality God's own son. 
He came to earth as an ordinary man, but 
He left as man never did. 

However, God has always been repre- 
sented upon earth; sometimes by angels, 
but oftener by men. Since the Bible was 
completed, God's representatives have been 
chosen from among men. As already re- 
marked, it is the highest office to which man 
can be called. It is one of great responsibil- 
ity, it requires brave men, men that are true 



258 Human Occupation 

and loyal and above all, good men. I do not 
write these paragraphs to tell these ambas- 
sadors of God what I conceive to be their 
work. God's true representatives have no 
need to be told of man what or how to do, 
for there is ever with them God's own re- 
corded Word, and His own free Spirit. 
These are their unerring guides. I simply 
record here what God rightly expects of 
those whom He calls to His service, or what, 
plainly, are some of the functions of their 
office. 

His representatives whom God sends 
forth into this world are to teach the peo- 
ple about God. They are to advocate and 
defend God; they are to witness for God. 
These three primary functions of the heav- 
enly ambassadors, as God's ministers may 
be called, are not wholly distinct; they 
blend. But to be clear, we will consider 
them as though they were distinct functions 
separately charged upon the true ambassa- 
dors of God. 

I. The first then is to teach the people 
about God. It may at first sound absurd 
that the human population of this beautiful 
world should need to be taught about God. 



Working for God 259 

They are themselves really the only nobility 
of the whole earth, created with similarity 
to God and angels. And we would expect 
they were in possession of much knowledge 
of God. Yet at one act of the calculation it 
may be readily seen that the greater part of 
the total population of the world know al- 
most nothing of God. There seems to be 
some impulse or motive comes to them 
which tells them of God's being and that He 
is to be adored. But in their effort to re- 
spond to this demand of their being they 
begin to worship in a manner that, if it is 
not ridiculous, it is certainly pitiful. So 
little do they know of God that they begin 
to worship creations of their own hands, 
or trees, cattle, serpents, sticks and stones. 
They know no more what God is than they 
know where He is. 

Even the most civilized and advanced 
classes of people are neither clear, certain 
nor unanimous in their beliefs about God. 
Nor do those who profess to have found 
Him and have formed an attachment with 
Him see and teach alike regarding God. 
Although there is a oneness growing and 
will forever grow among His adopted peo- 



260 Human Occupation 

pie, it is evident that preachers frequently 
think the people know more about God than 
they do know. I have listened to sermons 
addressed to audiences made up of all kinds 
of people that dwell in a Christianized land. 
The speakers often presume the audience 
are all as well informed as the best in- 
formed, and preach on that presumption. 
Henry Ward Beecher and Charles G. Fin- 
ney were both powerful, popular and ef- 
fective preachers. The former said he 
always aimed at the lowest heads, while 
Mr. Finney habitually addressed the rough- 
est hearts, and it might be added that, not- 
withstanding this, these two men were 
themselves intellectual giants and were 
sought after by the most cultured congrega- 
tions in America. God's ambassadors must 
not presume that the world already knows 
as much about God as they know them- 
selves, but should believe that their mission 
is to go forth with their fund of God-given 
wisdom and teach it with simplicity out of 
a pure heart to God's waiting world. 

Revealing God to man is not so easy as 
discovering to man the physical world. 
The teacher that would impart information 



Working for God 261 

of the world can lead his pupils to some 
mountain summit projecting over the sea 
and show them a large part of the world 
the material eye falls upon, — land and sea, 
mountain and valley, the orb of day and the 
stars of the night. That the earth is round 
gets ample evidence; that it rotates and re- 
volves is easily believed. Her interior may 
be spoken of and almost looked into. But to 
know by mortal sense the uplifted, almighty 
God is neither possible nor expedient. And, 
to teach God to the world by a purely intel- 
lectual process is impossible. Man cannot 
know God by the intellect; nor can he ex- 
plain His nature or attributes to the intel- 
lect. I doubt if pure intellect makes complete 
achievements in any field of knowledge. It 
seems to me that men acquire knowledge on 
their knees. They become masters of music 
only after years of supplication for music. 
[They become botanists only after years of 
entreaty for the revelations of the Botanical 
world. Man cannot walk out into the realm 
of nature and command a knowledge of 
Zoology to come to him. He must trap and 
try and pet and pray for the advent of that 
department of knowledge. It comes slowly 



262 Human Occupation 

if at all and on occasion flees away in a mo- 
ment like a bird frightened from her nest. 
Who has ever acquired a knowledge of chil- 
dren with the lash and dissecting knife? 
Even the universe, which we see or think 
we see, can really be known only by the pa- 
tient suppliant for knowledge. So, also, and 
only so, can a knowledge of God be secured. 
"Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall 
find, knock and it shall be opened unto 
you." 

Of course, the teacher of God, must not 
only teach God's attributes, but he must 
teach the people what God has done, and 
what He intends to do. This is -easier, and 
both studies shed light upon His attributes. 
The history of God's dealings with the peo- 
ple of this world most convincingly proves 
that He is one God, of one unchanging pur- 
pose; that all ability and truth are on His 
side; that He is patient; full of love and 
compassion; and that He is resolved on ul- 
timate order in the universe. 

II. If a man undertakes to teach the na- 
ture of God, what God has done and what 
He intends to do, he will find himself at 
once under the necessity of becoming a de- 



Working for God 263 

fender and advocate of God. For the 
natural man, when he sees these things, may 
be set at enmity with God, looking at the 
subjects from one viewpoint only; so, as 
incredible as it may appear, the great God 
who created worlds in man's behalf, needs 
today to be defended. He has in all ages 
met with criticism. He has been mocked, 
derided and disbelieved by man; but never 
before so much as in the present generation, 
have His acts, His declarations and His in- 
tentions been criticised. His prophets, 
priests and missionaries have been rejected 
and slain. His only begotten Son, sent 
from the bosom of the Father, was rejected, 
then arrested and dragged to trial, torture 
and crucifixion. Time has elapsed and the 
world has improved. Sixty generations of 
men have lived and died upon the earth since 
then, but it is not evident that they have 
deeply repented of what their fathers had 
done, or amended their attitude toward God. 
Less violence is done today than formerly, 
but criticism was never before so sharp. 
With dagger in hand it now rises up on all 
sides and rushes in for the attack, reiterat- 
ing stab after stab like Caesar's assassins 



264 Human Occupation 

in the Roman Senate. Both God's Word 
and His works have been subjected to what 
is often called "modern criticism", though 
it is modern only in form, not in nature. 
Men combated miracles in the day of their 
gracious enactment; they charged God with 
wrong motives; they resisted what He did 
no less than what He said. Only once has 
God's Son appeared in person among men. 
His conduct then was as gentle as a lamb; 
his mission was one of mercy; his message 
was the breath of compassion and all He 
required of man was response to His own 
unprecedented love. Yet, strange to say, 
pure love, expressed personally, and em- 
bodied in flesh and blood was not acceptable 
to man. Rejection and resistance were only 
irritated by His presence, and man's criti- 
cism culminated in the world's unspeakable 
crime, that of dragging to the slaughter the 
very Son of God. 

It is impossible to believe that the great 
gulf between God and man has been fixed 
there by human willfulness alone. The 
world has been ignorant of God as it has 
been ignorant of the universe ; and ignorant 
of His ways as it has been of natural law. 



Working for God 265 

It is pitiful to relate, but the world has been 
in gross darkness, manifestly because their 
sins had separated them and their God. God 
has sought after man, but man has not uni- 
formly sought after God. He has with- 
drawn and fled away from God as darkness 
itself recedes from the approaching day. 
There is thus a great gulf fixed between 
man and his Maker. 

It is true that in the present time there 
are vast numbers of people studying the 
works of God as enacted in the past and cast 
into permanent record: true also that those 
records have been accommodated to man's 
use as never before. But it is not appar- 
ent that the truly devout students of the 
Bible are more numerous than in some 
former ages. Critical study, literal study, 
mandatory study are studies; but they are 
not the golden stairs winding Heavenward 
that lead men on their knees to God. The 
wand of the universe was raised centuries 
ago and it was announced to man that "The 
letter killeth, but the Spirit maketh alive". 
"With the heart man believeth unto right- 
eousness". There is a world of wisdom 
just above man's head and about him for- 



266 Human Occupation 

ever, but it is not to be acquired. Men 
cannot provide themselves with it with any 
more facility than they can capture the light 
of day. It is for man, though it is from 
Heaven, but it never enters by the head. It 
is the gift of God and enters by the heart. 
Men who are by nature or by acquirement 
reliant on the brain rather than the heart, 
walk into intensifying darkness as they ap- 
proach God, notwithstanding God is light. 
Between God and man there should be a 
mediator, an agent ; but the utmost he could 
do would be to reassure man that to ap- 
proach God and enter the Kingdom he must 
come as a child. Man himself is no more 
than animated clay, were he not endowed 
of God. The gifts of intellect, sensibility 
and will have not been acquired by man, but 
there planted and nurtured of God. In- 
stead of attacking God, His word, His 
work, or His world, man's more appropri- 
ate attitude would be following after truth, 
and love, and God. 

God's defender in this world must him- 
self understand both God and man. It must 
not be presumed that he can bring the two 
together until he does. If the world is at 



Working for God 267 

enmity with God mainly because it does not 
understand Him, it is of all things primarily 
important that the middle man should un- 
derstand both. A farmer may become a 
sailor when he understands the sea and its 
commerce. The sailor may like farming 
when he has come to understand the conti- 
nent and its commerce. What mortal can 
desire immortality until he catches a glimpse 
of it, or how can he desire Heaven until by 
spirit-faith he looks in at the portals ajar! 
So men who do not know that God is hon- 
est, unchangeable, eternal, just and all love, 
can hardly aspire to His household, His 
■embrace or His blessing. 

God's defender, if he starts on his mis- 
sion to defend God and make the world see 
His justice in all ; His consistency in all and 
His love over all, must himself become love 
incarnate, abounding in love to God and 
love to man. He must ever be fearless and 
faithful. He must dare to tell men the 
truth. He must fear to misrepresent God. 
His is a mission of love more than of let- 
ters, of wisdom rather than knowledge. Let 
him carry universal credentials from the 
universal throne, and teach as one sent. 



268 Human Occupation 

III. It has been boldly asserted by those 
who would assail Christ's Kingdom, that 
Christianity as it originally was, has passed 
away; that men no longer experience what 
they did in the first century and that a 
Christian now is not what a Christian then 
was. If this is the case, certainly no one 
knows it better than do the Christians. In 
passing on what the Christian experiences, 
no one is better qualified than is the Chris- 
tian himself. If the world has come to any 
such conclusion that there is no reality in 
the Christian experience, it is the fault of 
the Christian himself. He has not borne 
witness to what he knows. He has not been 
true to his God or to his neighbor. Because 
he has not told the truth for God and in 
behalf of men, he has robbed both. God is 
not brought into the light, neither is man. 
God is not understood, while man fails to 
understand. 

To bring God and man together in per- 
fect understanding man must testify to man. 
What one man knows he must reveal to an- 
other. The man that has been led to a 
knowledge of God, must faithfully declare 
that knowledge before men. This function 



Working for God 269 

devolves on the living, acting man and 
must be discharged to his own generation. 
The first generation of Christians cannot 
speak; the angels of Heaven cannot speak; 
God Himself cannot reveal the things that 
are for us only to tell, — our own experience. 
If the true Christian should utter his 
testimony today, what might he say? He 
could easily say that the Christ, put to death 
at the beginning of the first century, lives 
again. That in spirit he is again among 
men, and that although unseen and unfelt 
by the natural man, he is both seen and felt 
and communed with by the Christian. He 
could say that this living, present compan- 
ion, Christ, has more power over life than 
has the world, the flesh and the devil. That 
His gentle touch and still small voice con- 
trol more fully and easily than all other 
forces combined. He could testify that 
Jesus never leads us into wrong doing or 
wrong thinking, but always His influence is 
for good. He also knows that this present, 
visible Christ at once withdraws if sin or 
even neglect is indulged in, and it is only 
by hearty, childlike and complete compli- 
ance with God's written Word that this gen- 

18 



270 Human Occupation 

tie, loving presence may be enjoyed. This 
living, present Christ is the spirit of God, 
the comforter of man. 

The Christian may also say with ease 
that the Bible is the Word of God. It is 
not like other books ; it is all good ; all wise ; 
all pure; all aglow with light, and is rich 
beyond comparison with divine truth. It is 
-easy to understand when the Holy Spirit 
presses it home, and it means a thousand 
times more to the spiritual man than to the 
natural man. It is sweeter than honey and 
the honeycomb, and to dwell upon it in the 
presence of this Holy Spirit, the living, 
present, visible Christ is an experience un- 
speakably precious, ineffable beyond com- 
parison The fireside, the family circle, the 
caresses of little children and the compan- 
ionship of man's helpmate are great bless- 
ings, but they cannot be brought to class 
or compare with the approving presence of 
Christ and His word. Without God and 
God's truth what would Heaven be? It 
would be a world of darkness, not of light; 
a world filled with lost ones sighing for God 
and the truth, full of lambs without a lov- 
ing, gentle Shepherd. 



Working for God 271 

'Tis God who makes a universe of bliss; 

Plis presence, Spirit, Word and Righteousness. 

The Christian might truthfully bear wit- 
ness that God plants in his lieart the all-mas- 
tering principle of love. So much so that God 
is loved, His word is loved and fellowman is 
loved. There is a divine abundance of love 
ever springing up in the heart, and going 
forth to all men, all nations and everything 
that has being. Sin only is loathed, and that 
is feared more than hell itself. Men count not 
their lives as precious, but calmly go any- 
where with Jesus. In this respect the Chris- 
tians of the present century closely resem- 
ble those of the first century, having passed 
with joy into all the world to witness for 
God. 

The Christian can truly say that the new 
birth and the new life are real. That old 
things have passed away and, behold! all 
things have become new. He once be- 
longed to this world, he now belongs to the 
Kingdom of God. His conversation was 
once of earth and the things of earth, it is 
now in Heaven. His delight was once here 
below, it is now in the law of the Lord. He 
is not so intimate with the natural world 



272 Human Occupation 

as he once was, but he is infinitely closer to 
the Spiritual world. All things work to- 
gether for his good; his prayers are an- 
swered. Regeneration is a fact known in 
human experience. 

What more need be said? What more 
could the earliest Christians say? In what 
way did their testimony and their exper- 
ience differ from those of Christians to- 
day? If there is a difference, it is in quan- 
tity, not in quality; in the magnitude, not 
in the kind. Herein is encouragement for 
every Christian to draw closer to God. 

By the yoke-fellow of God, one thing 
must be borne perpetually in mind. The 
work of rescuing this world is God's work, 
not man's. It was His from the dimmest 
dawn of history. When we came into the 
world, it had been His work for some thou- 
sands of years. Our projects in behalf of 
the race are not original, but were inspired 
from Heaven. His plan is the platform 
from which all successful effort must rise. 
We have not chosen Him, or His work ; He 
has chosen us. Words are not to be spoken, 
plans are not to be laid, measures are not 
to be inaugurated unless they correspond 



Working for God 273 

with and are built upon the original. The 
body of the church is great and so is the 
power of her uplifted arm ; but, as the bride 
of Christ, her submission should be exceeded 
only by her gentleness. To suffer wrong 
she is permitted, but to inflict it never. We 
are to be as lambs among wolves though 
not without a shepherd. As the flocks on 
the green rolling hills are led forth and back 
and recline under the bidding of the herds- 
man, so the church in all ages has no respon- 
sibility but to trust and obey. If war on 
sin is to be waged, it is for God to order it 
and to control its issues. Man may pro- 
pose but God must dispose. 



XI 

RESPONSIBILITY 

Of all God's beings created in the flesh, 
man is the only one who carries responsibil- 
ity. There are others that are possessed of 
more size and greater strength, but man is 
the only creature in the flesh who lifts his 
head into the realm of morals. He alone, 
of the earth born, knows the law of duty, 
the force of ought and ought not. The 
beasts are swayed by instinct almost as ir- 
resistibly as the waters are restrained by 
gravity, but man in his existence is charged 
with an -ever-present responsibility. His 
every act and volition and even his passiv- 
ity are forever under the light of the moral 
law. He escapes the law of necessity only 
by accepting the law of duty; and by em- 
bracing the law of duty and following it 
on toward perfection he rises higher and 
higher from that of necessity until his 
adoption into the family of God exempts 
him from command, and effulgent love be- 
2U 



Responsibility 275 

comes his perpetual motive both here and 
hereafter. If duty is despised and self-will 
is asserted, he not only fails to know the 
Kingdom of Love, but he descends into the 
fires and vices of necessity never to return, 
unless, in his desperation, he grasps again 
the thread of duty. Morality is known in 
Heaven, but on earth man alone is under 
its law. 

In his first stages man seldom knows his 
duty. The extent of his responsibility has 
not appeared. Nor does it appear until in 
his maturity he feels his own power, knows 
the decrees of God and beholds the ten- 
dencies of the human race. His earliest 
impressions are that he should himself do 
right. Wrong smites him in the face, while 
right calms his conscience and is a balm to 
his soul. And certainly there is no greater 
universal gain than when a youth highly re- 
solves that, let others do as they will, he will 
for himself choose rectitude and reward. 
This is the first and always consistent step 
to him who would to any extent serve God, 
and after this do all other acts of righteous- 
ness appropriately follow. 

When one goes farther, however, and not 



276 Human Occupation 

only hears the winsome, warning voice of 
conscience, but finds on record the eternal 
edicts of God. what is and is to be, and how 
men must conform, decisions are confirmed, 
and redoubled responsibilities come like a 
flood. High above all worlds and created 
things is the all-knowing God in presidency 
over the universe. He has not only issued 
a system of control, but He is Himself the 
executive. He is not only aware that the 
earth-race has revolted, but He has adapted 
the universal government to the situation. 
Undying love, paternal in kind, is indeed 
His motive and the nature of His amended 
government. This, of course, requires 
mercy, but mercy requires order and pro- 
tection, and order and protection require 
the expulsion of all wickedness from the 
realm of the inoffensive and innocent. To 
express it in the language of the original de- 
cree, it required a receptacle called Hell for 
the vicious and destructive that there may 
be a safe realm of abode called Heaven for 
those who love only righteousness. 

Man comes to a realization of his re- 
sponsibility, when he comes to a realization 
of these facts, and especially when he sees 



Responsibility 277 

that a large number of his fellow men are 
blindly or wilfully pursuing the broad road 
which leads to ultimate destruction. While 
it is neither becoming nor allowable for a 
Christian to pronounce upon men what their 
standing may be, there are two sensible and 
perfectly logical ways to find out. First by 
inquiring of God, and secondly by asking 
the people themselves, for men know ap- 
proximately their own state. The announce- 
ment of the unchangeable God has always 
been that those who have not before death 
formed a desire for and framed a petition 
to the King of Heaven shall never enter or 
take up citizenship in His Domain. And 
when we turn to men to inquire their plans 
and prospects for entrance there we find that 
at the opening of the twentieth century 
fully two-thirds of living mortals have not 
so much as heard of that Kingdom. A very 
large per cent of those who have vaguely 
heard of the existence of that uplifted do- 
main of bliss are in no way intelligent re- 
garding its door or the condition of en- 
trance thereto. Millions have found the 
door, and other millions have been ushered 
through. Death itself is not a greater real- 



278 Human Occupation 

ity than the open portal of Heaven. But 
the same One who proclaims the door open 
and who is Himself the Way, says also that 
there are few that go in thereat. 

Such are the transcendent facts that con- 
front the mature and enlightened mind and 
determine a man's responsibility. In the 
presence of these facts, Christ commands 
men to receive their qualifications from 
Him and go into all the world and disciple 
all nations of men. To save ourselves is 
to vow allegiance to Heaven, which means 
to work for God while the white harvest, 
world wide, lies ungathered before lis. If 
the world is to go down and to be envel- 
oped in flame, it must not be suffered to go 
without a warning, nor must those who 
range around, if they would work for God, 
desert the scene until the last soul has been 
entreated to be reconciled to God. Herein 
is man's high calling, to lead the world back 
to God. 



XII 

IN CONSEQUENCE 

The soul who follows the foregoing prin- 
ciples with benevolent heart and Heaven- 
ward faith goes not to his grave under the 
scourge, nor suffers disapprobation of men. 
His life has been a ministration to many, 
and many rise up to call him blessed. Be- 
cause he has done it unto men, he has done 
it unto God. Approval and appreciation 
for him resound through the avenues of 
Heaven. He is a much blessed, much loved 
and never forgotten man. Not once, nor 
twice, but throughout his ministry and for 
all eternity, he is honored among the good 
and great. He has prominence on earth 
and a throne in Heaven. 

Enjoyment comes in consequence and is 
not to be sought as an end. It is the jew- 
eled crown that is bestowed upon the brow 
of the martyr. From pain and tears and 
work w r ell done, one rises to meet it. It 
always depends, not on its wearer, but on 
279 



280 Human Occupation 

what he has done. It is the dove that hovers 
above the hard fought field, an angel bend- 
ing over a restless bed of prayer. It is 
lovely but not to be embraced, sweet but not 
to be tasted. It is more blessed to give it 
than to receive it. And even when it is 
given to us, it should not stagnate there, but 
surging through the soul, should go bound- 
ing on — an overflowing blessing to many. 

Even in Heaven we meet with transcend- 
ent reward, not alone because of what we 
momentarily enjoy, but primarily because 
of what we have done. It will be the sweet 
savor of our earth record rising up before 
us and before our God that will make us 
most happy. The memory of the fevered 
brother we have nursed, the orphan face 
we have kissed, the bewildered widow we 
have provided for, the aspiring youth we 
have directed aright — these are the mem- 
ories that gladden the heart in -eternity. 
They are our stars of rejoicing, the jewels 
of our crown. Let our earth life be barren, 
and our future will be friendless; but let 
God and man rejoice in our works and, it is 
inevitable, we will rejoice in them too. 

Why sit down alone in Heaven? The 



In Consequence 281 

feast is spread for many. The mansions on 
a thousand hills are not for a soul in soli- 
tude. Earth friends may colonize there if 
they so elect. Will man neglect, will he 
draw back in fear, will he suffer others to 
miss the gates of Heaven? The fruitful 
fields of Canada, the waving riches of 
Washington, the eldorados of California 
should in comparison, sink into oblivion; 
and those who would set their faces toward 
a country should drink in the vision of 
Heaven, where glass and gold are mixed, 
where gates and towers and domes and 
thrones rise in receding succession, where 
what is seen is less than what is felt, and 
what is felt is less than what is known. 

Were one man's happiness alone in- 
volved, the consideration might be less. But 
by the righteous conduct of one, the well- 
being of thousands may be secured. The 
man after God's own heart deals his bread 
to the hungry and draws out his heart to 
the poor. The friendless are caused to sit at 
his feast, to banquet at his board, to warm 
at his hearth and subsist from his bounties. 
His providence mantles their persons and his 
words feast their i>ouls. From the highways 



282 Human Occupation 

and hedges he gathers sheaves for eternity. 
Of feeding God's lambs he has the high 
honor here, while in Heaven they are his 
crown of rejoicing forever. 

His every act of mercy and of grace re- 
flects honor on his own family. It not only 
gives joy to his mother and gladness to his 
father, it crowns with honor his posterity 
to the third and fourth generations. The 
best heritage of a child is the blood of an 
honored parent. Money cannot buy nor 
homesteads provide the breadth of posses- 
sion that a father's nobility hands down. 
Uninterrupted rejoicing among the blessed 
of earth and of Heaven flows freely be- 
cause of the righteous conduct of one man. 

Not only this, but broadly speaking, he 
exalts the nation. The honor that crowns 
the heads of nations that have honor, has 
been placed there by the lives of her glori- 
fied individual sons and daughters. Does 
Greece point to her past? If so, she points 
to those who made possible her golden age 
—those who solemnized Philosophy, crys- 
talized Science, and glorified Literature. 
Does Rome make haste to direct the gaze of 
the world upon her heroes ? Not unless she 



In Consequence 283 

points to her reformers, her lawmakers, her 
orators and benefactors. When England 
refers to her glorious past, she thinks of 
those who have attained their nobility by the 
road the Bible blazoned and that Jesus hard- 
ly trod. So with America or any other na- 
tion living or dead. Among all lands, in 
all periods of time, the halo of glory rests 
upon those who have fought for the right. 
The righteousness that exalteth a nation is 
the righteousness of her individuals. 

Of such an inheritance no power on 
earth can rob us. Material treasure is sub- 
ject to the raids of men, but the crown of 
honor, never. This crown is not only con- 
ferred upon the worthy by all the world, it 
is held in high respect by all the world. 
There is that within a man that guides him 
in his judgments aright, and when a man is 
altogether approved in Heaven, he is usually 
approved on earth. What son of earth is 
there, who, when he has blessed humanity, 
honored himself, his family, his nation, his 
generation, and his God, does not reap there- 
from a satisfaction perpetual and a joy ever- 
lasting ? 

In this universe there are two spiritual 



284 Human Occupation 

kingdoms — the kingdom of pure love and 
the kingdom of pure selfishness. Both these 
kingdoms are present in this world. They 
are antagonistic, but are in most places to 
be found present. The kingdom of pure love 
came down from Heaven; in fact, it is the 
Kingdom of Heaven; while opposed to this 
is the world-wide kingdom of selfishness. 
It is in the kingdom of selfishness that the 
soul finds its full measure of misery; while 
in the kingdom of love it finds its full meas- 
ure of enjoyment, "He that would save 
his own life shall lose it and he that will 
lose his own life for my sake/' said Christ, 
"shall find it." Declared to be so by Jesus, 
it is found to be so by man, that it is more 
blessed to give than to receive. It is also 
true to human experience that if we give 
we shall receive, and the process culminates 
in two sources of profound enjoyment. One 
is that we are always giving to men, which 
brings its flood of joy. The other is that we 
are always consciously receiving from God. 
The latter joy even surpasses the former. 
What a man who does God's will enjoys 
can be known only by experience, and that 
experience can be had only by doing the 



In Consequence 285 

sublime will. Without the doing, there is 
neither experience nor enjoyment. "Blessed 
are they that do His commandments, they 
shall have right to the tree of life, and may 
enter in through the gates into the City/' 
"He that hath an ear to hear let him hear 
what the Spirit saith: To him that over- 
cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life 
which is in the midst of the Paradise of 
God." 



XIII 
IN CONCLUSION. 

In conclusion let it be said that man's life 
work is a great work — too great for mortal 
man alone. Man! the architect of his own 
eternal destiny, entrusted with children, 
whose immortal souls take their first flight 
from his hands; man among men, man 
of two worlds, man who is given the privi- 
lege of prayer and of cooperation with 
God; man is immeasurably great! He is 
the very apex of created beings. His world 
is the whole world, and his work is greater 
than his world. Regenerated and commis- 
sioned for his work, he is to be filled with 
God's Spirit. He is to be the living, moving 
temple of God in whom God's Spirit dwells 
and from which He works in the world. 

Oh creation of God ! Made a little lower 
than angels themselves, called of God to 
every high and holy act, can you descend 
from your high-born estate? Can you de- 
scend to mere animal life? Can you spend 
286 



In Conclusion 287 

the dawn and the decline of day seeking 
what you may subsist upon ? Will you sur- 
render your name among men and your 
mansion in the skies for a life of greed and 
gain? Will you forsake the summit of life 
and, diving below every strata of human 
decency, pursue with all abandon the cor- 
ridors of license and debauch? Will you 
labor for the meat that perisheth, though by 
the voice and uplifted hand of God you are 
forbidden so to do? Will you lose your 
own soul that you may gain the whole 
world? Or, worse yet, will you choose the 
lust of this world and the corruption of 
eternity, despising the ways of rectitude, 
and the avenues of light? 

Oh, arise now, though you may be on the 
far-off fields of peril; though you may be 
swinging from the brink of time into the 
abyss of eternity. Turn your agonizing 
look to Heaven. Arise from your ruins and 
come back to the paternal palaces. Be born 
of God. Make a high resolve and a new 
start. Arise to your God-appointed work. 
Maintain yourself, your family, your church 
and your state. Enlist in the grand army 
that works for God and all else good. Let 



388 Human Occupation 

yours be a life of high and holy joy. A soul 
new-born, live in the world as an angel of 
light bearing blessings everywhere. Feed 
and shelter God's little ones and great shall 
be your reward in Heaven. 



MAR 11 1907 



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